Heaven or Las Vegas
by taydo-the-potato
Summary: Everything changed in the course of one night. Never again will things be the way they were when we left. You know when the quote "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"? I think the better quote is "What happens in Vegas may alter everything you've ever thought was true." When people say some people can't handle Vegas, they were talking about us.
1. The Beginning

_**A/N: **My new legit story you guys! I hope you really like because I think I put a lot of effort into this and I think you guys would like it. By the way, the name of the story comes from The Weeknd's song **Heaven or Las Vegas**. The story doesn't relate to the song in any way, shape or form, I just thought that it would be a perfect fit since they were going to Las Vegas. Also, if you have listened to The Weeknd... you really should because I love his songs and his album is just... brilliant. _

_Okay, enough of me fangirling... Enjoy the story!_

Chapter One: The Beginning

Huey was sitting at his desk when he heard his buzzer go off. He groaned loudly and got up. He was really starting to get interested in his African History book and he didn't want to be bothered with people at the moment. He pressed the button on the intercom. "Yeah?" he said in the speaker.

"_It's me,_" the voice answered. He rolled his eyes. Was he supposed to know it was, based on just two words? It could literally be anyone one of eight billion people in the world, or more realistically one of the six million people that live in Maryland. Although he had a feeling he knew who it was.

"You're going to have to give me more information than me," he replied, only trying to irritate the person outside. It was probably working. "Otherwise, I'm going to have to call the police about a stranger on my doorstep."

"_It's Caesar! Damn, why you always gotta be so difficult?_" he snapped back, almost causing Huey to chuckle. Other than Riley, Caesar was the easiest to piss off.

"Oh, hey Ceez. I didn't know it was you," Huey said sarcastically. "I'll buzz you in." He pressed the button to let Caesar in and he went ahead and unlocked the door for him. He stretched up. He was pretty much in the same position for a good four hours.

"Wassup Huey?" Caesar greeted as he closed the door and fell on the couch. He looked at his friend's clothes, which consisted of sweatpants and a white t-shirt. "Have you been here all day? Did you even leave this apartment?" he asked Huey.

He shrugged. "Today was my day off," he protested. He went to his kitchen and looked inside the fridge. Nothing but two water bottles and a jar of mayonnaise. Damn, he forgot that he needed to go to the store today. He got one of the bottles of water and cracked it open. "I used this time to study… is that a bad thing?"

"Nah," Caesar answered. He turned on the TV as Huey sat down in the chair. "But sometimes, you need to socialize with people. It isn't healthy to cooped up in the house all day and not talk to anybody."

"I talk to you, and I talk to Jazmine. That's enough for me."

"By the way, did you talk to your future baby mama today?" he smirked.

"Did you just come over here to make fun of me?" Huey snapped. "She's not my baby mama! We don't even go out!"

Caesar lifted his hands in his defense. "Alright, she ain't your baby mama… yet." Huey threw his water bottle at Caesar's head. He was off by an inch. "I'm kidding, bro!"

"For your information, she has the late shift at the hospital, and she doesn't get off until eleven tonight," he said matter-of-factly.

"So you know her whole schedule now?" Caesar joked.

"Is there a reason you're over here?" Huey questioned him, slightly annoyed with his friend's presence.

"I wanted to invite you to Cindy's twenty –first birthday," he replied. "Now I know you don't like parties, but this is supposed to be the shit."

"I don't even talk to her like that," Huey said. "Sometimes, we don't even acknowledge each other presences. Why does she want me there?"

Caesar shrugged. "I don't know, man. I found out about it today and she told me to tell you about it, too." He put his finger on his cheek. "You know, now that I think about it, why _would_ she want to invite you?" He shrugged again, giving up thinking about it. "So are you gonna go?"

Huey looked around his apartment. He hadn't really gone out since Jazmine's own birthday three months ago and even though he didn't really care for Cindy like that, he was kind of sick of looking at the same four walls day after day after day. He could take off a couple of days. "I guess," he agreed. He pulled out his phone's calendar. "When is it?"

"Friday."

He quickly typed it in. "And where is it going to be?"

"Las Vegas."

Huey stopped everything he was doing and looked up at Caesar. "Las… Vegas? Nevada?" he inquired dumbly. "How the hell does she expect me to get a plane ticket for Las Vegas in a couple of days? Does she think that's cheap?" Huey stopped himself. Knowing Cindy's rich ass, she probably thought a last-minute flight _was _cheap.

"See that's the thing! She paid for them already. With her own money! Well, technically it's her parents' money but that's not the point! The point is… a nigga don't have to pay a cent!" Huey shrugged. "_Jazmine's _gonna be there…" he added, as if it would sway his vote.

It was actually working. He probably could get this weekend off, since he never took days off. And as an added bonus, Jazmine would be there. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

"_AND _we get to stay for the whole weekend… in a presidential suite or something like that! I mean, her fam with all out for her birthday," he continued, hoping that Huey could come with them to Nevada. "Plus, Jazmine's gonna be there!"

"Are you just going to keep saying Jazmine's going to be there until I agree to go?" Huey asked Caesar. He smiled and nodded. "Fine. I guess I'll go," he sighed, giving in to Caesar's pleading. His intercom went off. He walked over to it. "Yeah?"

"_It's me!_" the high voice exclaimed. Huey let her in.

"Oh, so you give me a hard time about not saying my name, but when she comes to your door and says 'it's me!' you automatically let her in without question!" Caesar noted, trying to mimic Jazmine's voice. "Doesn't she live in this building? Why does she need to call you?" Huey shrugged. "It's still discrimination!"

"Maybe because I like her more than I like you."

He smiled widely. "You admit that you like her."

He opened his mouth to protest, but Caesar probably wasn't going to listen to him anyways.

"Open the door, Huey!" Jazmine yelled on the other

"Hi, Caesar!" Jazmine chirped as she came up to Huey's door. He gave her a small wave. He noticed that she was carrying a bag of carryout. He took the bag away from her and set it on the kitchen counter. "Caesar, are you staying long? I do have extra food…"

Huey shot him a look that said if he stayed, he would probably kill him very slowly and painfully. But Caesar couldn't deny food, since he was a greedy-ass person. "Well, since you're offering, I might as well stay a couple of minutes."

Jazmine smiled and started pulling out white boxes. "You can have Huey's extra fried rice. He doesn't need it anyways," she explained, giving Caesar the container filled to the top with rice. He sat in the chair, so Huey and Jazmine could sit together. "And here are your noodles, Freeman."

"Thanks," he muttered as he grabbed the chopsticks and walked to the couch. He gave Caesar another look.

"What?" he asked, with his mouth full of food.

"Go home," he said simply.

"Don't be rude!" Jazmine scolded him like a child from the kitchen. She went into the living room and next to Huey. He tried not to notice Caesar's smirk on the other side of the room. "Ugh, I had the _worst_ day today."

"What happened?" Huey inquired, finding the water that he threw at Caesar and taking a small sip from it.

"I was put in the maternity ward today, and I was doing my rounds and I saw the dad putting the thermometer in the baby's mouth," she explained, putting her chopsticks in her food. "Like what the heck? You can kill the baby like that! And then when I tried to correct him, he argued me down!" She shook her head. "People these days."

"Wait… I thought that thermometers are supposed to go in the mouth…" Caesar said.

Huey and Jazmine stopped and stared at Caesar. "I'll explain it to you one day, Ceez."

"You know that you didn't have to bring me food," he told her before getting her almost empty carton. "Did you walk all the way here? I could've picked you up."

"Knowing you, I assumed you would forget to actually get food on your day off because you focus too much of your time on studying and not necessities like water and meals. _And_… since you're more valuable to me alive than dead… I decided to get you Chinese. You're welcome. Besides, the nearest restaurant is only a block away. You would know that if you actually went there once in a while…"

She did know him well.

"Thanks," he let out, putting the food in the refrigerator. "You didn't have to, though."

She got up and went to the fridge. She swung the door open and showed the few contents inside to Caesar and Huey. "Uhh… yeah, I kind of did."

"Damn! How do you even function?" Caesar joked.

"Don't you have your own house to go to, you little moocher?" Huey responded back.

Caesar looked down at his watch and got up. "Well, I hate to eat and leave…"

"You always eat then leave," Jazmine laughed.

"But some of us gotta go to work in the morning, so I'll see you guys later," he announced. As he walked to the door, he turned around to them. "And behave kids! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" he said, leaving through the door.

Huey rolled his eyes and went to lock the door. Jazmine was looking down at her phone and started to gasp loudly. "OhmyGodHueylookatthisdressit 'ssobeautifulIwantthisdressso badly!" she said in one breath. She showed her phone to Huey, but she was jumping up and down that he couldn't see what she was talking about.

He held her wrist in place. "Alright, alright calm down. Now what am I looking at?" he asked her.

She sucked her teeth. "The dress obviously! Isn't so cute?" she questioned, pushing the screen so that he could see it. It was a light blue floral sundress, with spaghetti straps and a zipper in the back. "Couldn't you imagine me wearing this in Vegas?"

He could imagine her wearing and not wearing a lot of things, but he decided to keep that little comment to himself. "So, I take it that you're going Cindy's birthday party too."

"Uh-huh. She called me during my break and told me. Apparently, her parents just surprised her with the news today," she explained, looking at more dresses on the website. She stopped. "Wait, why did she invite you?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me."

"Hmm…" she said. "Oh well, maybe she's starting to _like_ you," she giggled.

"Doubtful."

She smiled. "You're not as big of a jerk as you make people think you are. You just like a… Chihuahua. All bark, but no bite. I mean, you never hear of a Chihuahua actually biting someone. They just yap, yap, and yap until—"

"I think I get the idea," he cut her off.

Jazmine yawned and put her phone in her pocket. "I think that I'm going to head upstairs. I have an early shift tomorrow and I don't want to have to drag myself out of the bed in the morning." She walked to the front door. "I guess I'll see you Friday, right?"

"Friday," he repeated, closing the door behind her. He couldn't help but smirk. This weekend was already going to be better than he expected.

* * *

Cindy went over all her plans one more time before she went to sleep. The flight left at 2:25 a.m., first class of course because Cindy don't do economy. They would arrive in Viva Las Vegas at 7:50 p.m., and a limo would go and take them to the MGM Grand Hotel, where they would be staying in the Skyline Terrance Suite for two nights, averaging about 850 dollars a night. Then on Sunday, they would leave 5:05, go back about five and a half hours, and the legendary weekend would be finished.

Yeah, everything was according to plan.

"If you don't shut that fuckin' light off…" Riley grumbled next to her. He had the sheets over his head, but apparently the light was still bothering him. "It's midnight. You need to be sleep!"

"My bad, I was going over the things for the weekend! I wanted to make sure that all the shit was in place," she defended. She placed the papers on the nightstand. "Now, I'm done." She folded her arms across her chest. After a few seconds, she grabbed the papers again. "Although I do have to check one little thing…"

"Okay, give me this," Riley intervened, snatching the bulk of papers from her hand and putting them in the drawer on his side. He closed it and lied back down. "See? That wasn't so easy. Now go to bed."

Cindy huffed and turned out the lamp next to her. "Fine," she finally conceded.

"Do you feel better?" Riley asked her.

"No."

"Do I need to make you feel better?"

Cindy smirked. "I don't know. _Can _you?" she answered back slyly. "I mean, I don't know if Young Reezy is the man for the job."

Riley sat up. "Oh best believe… Young Reezy is _always _the best man for the job. No matter what," he retorted, earning a pounce from Cindy on top of him. He put his hands firmly on her hips as she looked down at him.

"Show me," she said in low growl.

Riley licked his lips and flipped her over, surprising the hell out of Cindy. She giggled when she felt his soft lips leave little pecks all over her neck. She wrapped her arms around his neck as she shimmied out of her night shorts.

His kisses started to turn into slight nibbles which turned into him straight out leaving hickeys on her neck. She loved the way it felt, but it was going to be awkward explaining to her mother when she saw her tomorrow what they were from. She hoped she had enough cover-up because she could tell that she had at least three.

The scene was getting more passionate as Riley took off his wife-beater. He was about to go for Cindy's, which was really his, but her phone went off. Cindy sat up, but Riley wanted to keep going. "Ignore them," he said.

"Quit playin, Reezy!" Cindy yelled at him, getting from under him. He groaned in protest as he flopped down on the bed. She unplugged her mobile and answered the person. "Hello?" she said into the speaker.

"_You invited him?!_" Jazmine yelled into the phone. Cindy had to pull the speaker away from her ear.

"Do you realize that it is _waaay _too late to be yellin' like that?" Cindy said, rubbing her ear.

"_You don't even care about him like that!_" Jazmine continued, completely ignoring Cindy's request.

"Aren't you the one who said that if I have something for my twenty-first birthday, that I should invite a certain Freeman boy?" Cindy reminded her. Riley's ears perked up at the sound of his last name.

"Who are you talking to?" he wondered.

"Jazmine," she said quietly. He lied back down, knowing that a certain Freeman boy was the other Freeman.

"_That was only if it was in Baltimore! This is Las Vegas we're talking about! Anything could happen! What if I get like, super wasted and I act a fool of myself and then he sees me differently and he never wants to talk to me again and I die alone with fifty cats?_"

Cindy sighed. "That is the biggest exaggeration I ever heard. You're not going to get overly drunk and Huey won't think differently of you."

"_But what if he gets super wasted and does something stupid? Or what if we both get super wasted and do something that can forever alter our relationship?_"

"I'm not even going to dignify that one with a response. Goodnight, Jazmine." She hung up the phone.

Riley smiled. "Now where were we?"

Cindy yawned and stretched. "Y'know, now that I think about it, I'm really sleepy. Night!" she said before lying down and turning over and going to sleep.

Riley groaned under his breath and turned to sleep as well.

* * *

Huey drummed on his thighs as he waited for Jazmine to come out of her bedroom. He told her he would be here at noon sharp and since that deadline has come and gone, he was getting a little antsy. "Jazmine, what are you doing in there?" he impatiently inquired. They were already ten minutes off the schedule and he knew he would never hear the end of it from Cindy if they were late.

She came out of her room. "Can you help me close my suitcase? Then we can go," she requested. Huey sighed and got up. He went to her bedroom, where her large suitcase was sitting on the bed, overflowing with clothes.

"Why do you have so many clothes? We're only going to be there for three days," he said, trying to zip up her suitcase. It would get stuck about a fourth of the way. "Shit, did you put your whole wardrobe in this damn bag?"

"Just zip it up, Freeman," Jazmine said. She folded her arms over her chest. "I don't need your sarcasm."

"I'm doing _you _a favor!"

Jazmine smiled widely. "Thank you Huey!" she sweetly exclaimed. He rolled his eyes and continued his task.

"I need you to sit on it while I try to close it," he informed her. She nodded and jumped on top of her pink luggage, with her legs under her. It took him a while, but he finally closed the bag all the way. "There." He picked it up by the handle and held it. "Can we go before I get an earful from Cindy?"

Jazmine rolled her eyes. "Okay _Tom_. Let me go get my shoes."

"I'm really offended that you just called me that," he retorted as walked to the door. "That is an insult to me."

She put the back of her shoe on and grabbed her giant purse that, per Huey, could possible fit a small child in. "I know. That's why I said it." She got her keys from the bowl and rushed out the door, quickly locking it. She stopped. "Wait. Where are your bags?"

"In the car already."

They both walked the down the stairs three flights to the ground floor. They walked to Huey's car, and he put her bag in the trunk, right next his much, much smaller black duffle bag. He unlocked the driver's side first and got in his seat. He reached over and manually pulled up the lock on the passenger side.

"Are you ever going to get that fixed?" Jazmine asked, sliding into the seat. "That thing has been broken since high school."

Huey shrugged and started up his car. "My car is old as hell. I'm sure they wouldn't know how to fix it, even if I take it somewhere. Besides, no one ever rides in my car except for me, so there's really no point in getting it fixed."

"I ride with you sometimes!"

"Hmm… I'll think about it," Huey replied, getting on the highway to Woodcrest. He glanced over at Jazmine, something he caught himself doing often, and turned back to the road. He didn't want to be too distracted, which could end up disastrous for the both of them.

"Are you excited, Huey? I've never been to Vegas before. Have you?" she asked him. He shook his head. "I hope it isn't as bad as people say it is…"

"It's probably because they get out of hand when they come to Vegas. They think it's some place where nothing could happen to them and sometimes they can't handle all of that," Huey said as he passed the Woodcrest city limits sign. "Just don't go overboard with the partying and you should be fine."

"Well, I know I can handle my liquor…" she started. Huey scoffed. "What? You think I can't handle drinking?"

"Remember when Caesar and I took you out for your birthday? You got sloppy drunk and I had to carry you up to your apartment and in your room because you passed out in the car," he reminded her. "So, no. I don't think you can hold your liquor."

She poked his arm. "We'll see when we get there."

"We will," he repeated, turning into the gate of the McPherson's estate. He pressed the button on the intercom in front of the gate.

"_May I help you sir?_"

"Uhh… it's Huey Freeman and Jazmine Dubois. We're here for Cindy's party," he said into the speaker.

There was silence on the other end, probably because the person went to go verify with Cindy if the unknown person were actually allowed on the grounds. Sure enough, the next person they heard was the soon to be birthday girl herself.

"_Nigga, where the fuck was you two?_" she hollered at Huey and Jazmine. "_Y'all asses were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago!_"

"Well, technically you're wasting more time interrogating us when we could be on our way to the airport right instead of sitting out here waiting for you to open the gate. So if you could just let us in…" Huey calm told her.

Cindy sighed and opened the gate. "_Smartass motherfucker,_" he heard her softly say. He rolled his eyes and ignore her comment and continue to drive to the front of the mansion. One of her butlers opened the door for Jazmine, and he came around and did the same thing for Huey.

"Would you like me to take your bags and put them into the vehicle?" the man asked him.

Huey was about to decline the offer when Jazmine jumped in. "Yes, thank you!" she said, grabbing Huey's arm and pulling him to the front door. "Come on! They're all waiting on us!" she excitedly said.

Huey let her drag him into the huge house, where everyone was in the living room, presumably waiting for them to arrive. Everyone got up and walked to the door, heading to airport. Cindy gave him a mean look. "What?" he sharply said to her.

"If we miss our flight because of you two lovebirds, I'll kill both of you," she simply stated.

"What?" Huey and Jazmine both choked out. They both looked at each other, and then back to Cindy. "We aren't dating!" they simultaneously yelled out. They glanced at one another again, both giving a raised eyebrow to the other person. This was getting really weird.

"Uh… huh. And that's why you're still holding hands… right?" Cindy retorted, rolling her eyes and walking away.

Jazmine immediately let go of Huey's hands and blushed hard. "Sorry," she said awkwardly. "I didn't even realize…"

"It's cool," he responded, shrugging his shoulders. He got into the car after Jazmine and Caesar. Cindy's parents didn't want to make a big spectacle of her going to the airport, so they decided to just drive her and her friends down to Baltimore-Washington Airport. Since they don't have a SUV like normal people, Mr. McPherson took the Bentley Continental GT, along with Cindy and Riley, while Mrs. McPherson took Caesar, Huey, and Jazmine in the Mercedes-Benz CL-Class.

"You think we gonna miss our flight?" Caesar asked Huey.

He looked at his watch. It was already about fifteen minutes until ten. "Well, it only takes fifteen minutes to get to the airport, and I would assume it would take about thirty minutes to get through security, so… we'll be cutting it pretty close."

"What took you so long, anyways?"

Huey immediately point to Jazmine. She smacked his hand. "Don't point at me!"

"But it _was _your fault!" Huey snapped back. "If you would've packed earlier, like I told you to, we would be here earlier." He turned to Caesar. "Did you see the size of her bag? It's like she packed for Australia for seven months." Caesar snickered a little.

"Maybe if someone wasn't on the phone with me until one…"

Caesar stopped and looked at Huey. "You were on the phone with until one?"

"Technically, it was closer to two…" Jazmine corrected, looking at the call log on her phone.

"You were on the phone with until almost _two_?"

Huey raised his hands. "Alright, alright, alright!" he said, getting the people to shut up. "Forget I even brought it up!"

Jazmine laughed and poked him. "Are you mad?" Huey huffed. "I think you're mad."

"I'm not mad."

Jazmine pouted and laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Huey."

Huey rolled his eyes. He knew he couldn't be mad at her, even if he tried. He grunted indifferently, not showing her that he already forgave her whenever she does her little sad little puppy scene.

Caesar snickered again. He made a whipping noise under his breath. Huey looked over to Caesar and lowered his eyes. "What? I didn't say anything!"

Mrs. McPherson stopped the car in front of the airport. The three kids piled out of the car and the boys started to take the luggage out of the trunk of the car. "Thank you Mrs. McPherson for the ride!" Jazmine said into the window of the car.

"You're welcome, sweetie! Have fun in this weekend!" Mrs. McPherson replied, waving at Jazmine.

"I will!" Jazmine said back. Cindy tapped her shoulder.

"If you don't stop socializing with my mama, and get in this damn building so we can leave…" she warned her best friend. Jazmine got her suitcase and rolled it inside the airport. She was ready to start the exciting weekend.

* * *

"It's mine!"

"No, it's mine!"

"Mine!"

"_Mine._"

"If it makes any difference, I already put my stuff down on the bed so…" Huey said, walking out of the bedroom with the single bedroom. Jazmine and Caesar stared at Huey. "What? You guys were arguing and I took it upon myself to resolve the problem."

"That's not fair!" Jazmine yelled at Huey.

"Yeah Huey, what the hell?" Caesar added.

Huey sighed and went into the kitchen. He looked and found three straws. He cut the straws at three radically different lengths. He put it behind his back and walked over to the bickering people. "Here's the deal. Longest straw gets the room by themselves, middle straw gets the bed in the other room, and shortest straw gets the pull out couch. Got it?"

Caesar nodded, but Jazmine was unconvinced. "How do I know you won't just keep the longest straw for yourself?" she asked.

"Jazmine, I just want to lay down in whatever bed I'm getting. But if you really are that paranoid, I'll choose my straw last."

Caesar grabbed his straw. He looked at the long blue straw in his hands. "Ha! Yes!" he happily said. He grabbed his stuff and walked to the bedroom with the king-sized bed. "Make sure you get your shit out of here Huey!" he reminded his friend.

Huey rolled his eyes and looked at Jazmine, who seemed very disappointed. "If you want, you can take the bed, and I'll sleep on the couch." The futon in the other bedroom looked as if it was made decades ago. The only reason it was out of place in the highly renovated room was because the rooms only had one bed in both of the rooms and Cindy thought that Huey and Caesar would room together, and it would be pretty gay if they shared a bed together. But now that Caesar won his own room, Huey didn't really mind sharing a bed Jazmine.

In fact, Jazmine had been more touchy-feely than usual, if it was even possible. First, she held his hand when they had turbulence on the plane ("I'm not of afraid of flying; I'm afraid of crashing and dying."), when they were walking down the strip and watched the fountain show at the Bellagio Hotel ("It's _so _pretty!"), and when they rode the roller coaster at New York New York Hotel ("That was the greatest ride ever!"). Huey knew she wasn't doing it on purpose; that was one of the few things he was sure about. But a little piece of him… a piece of him kind of hoped that it was more than just a friendly gesture.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking at him with her head tilted to the side. "I mean…"

"No it's fine. Really." He went to Caesar's room and was looking for his duffel bag. He saw his bag in corner and went to go pick it up. As he was about to leave the room, he noticed Caesar giving him a smirk. "What do you want now?"

"Nothing, son," he answered, shrugging his shoulders. He added a little laugh at the end. Huey lifted his eyebrow. "No, seriously… it's not that big of a deal."

"Nothing is gonna happen," Huey reassured him.

"Yeah sure," Caesar scoffed.

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

Huey stared at his friend as he tried to decipher what he was thinking. He shook his head as he walked to the room across the short hall. Jazmine was already dressed in something more comfortable, and was trying to pull out Huey's couch/bed. She sat down on the bed and overdramatically wiped her forehead. "Do you know how heavy that is?"

He sat down next to her, and lied down. "Thanks… I guess."

"That's a half-assed expression of gratitude," she said, laughing. "You can do better than that!" Huey said nothing in response. Jazmine sighed loudly. "Well, you're welcome… I guess, since I'm not getting nowhere with you." She lied down and glanced over at Huey, who was staring at the ceiling, but now was fixated on Jazmine. "Thanks."

"For…?"

"Coming here. You know this isn't really your type of scene," she explained. "You're more of the 'stay at home and hope that I don't interact with anyone' type of person. I was really surprised that you actually agreed to come. It's kind of nice that you're out of your comfort zone."

"Oh," he replied.

She smiled and sat up. "It's a compliment, Huey. Don't sound so sad about it! Besides," she continued. "We're in Vegas! And we're about to party and go out and have a good time!" She slapped his thigh. "Go get ready!"

He sat up and stood up. "Alright, bossy. Jesus," he answered, a slight smirk on his face.

Jazmine stuck her tongue out and walked to the bathroom.

* * *

Cindy exited their room on the second floor, followed by Riley. It was almost midnight, Cindy's birthday, and they were just waiting for the clock to change. Cindy's been drinking since she was fourteen, but the thought of actually doing it legally now… well, it was unbearable how slow time was going for her.

"You excited?" Riley asked her, going down the stairs.

"Understatement of the year," she answered. Cindy walked to the bar and started grabbing bottles. Since Riley still had a good two years until he was legal, the couple was going to pregame until they were nice and toasty.

It took four shots to do the job.

When Jazmine and Huey, along with Caesar came into the kitchen, they saw Cindy and Riley drunkenly giggling with a bottle of Jose Cuervo in his hands. Huey and Caesar shook their heads solemnly.

"Are you drunk already?" Jazmine asked them.

Riley sobered up quickly. "Nah, we just pregamin… no biggie, girlie," he answered, as if it was the standard thing to get drink before drinking. He started to pour everyone out a shot, passing down to each person.

"Aye! I got something to say!" Cindy yelled. "Okay, it's my fucking birthday… I'm fucking twenty-one… and I just gots one thing to say…" She held up her shot, as did everyone one else around her. "To the break of dawn, yo!" she exclaimed as she quoted one of her favorite movies, _Project X_. She downed the liquor quickly and looked at her friends.

"Now... let's go fuck up a city."


	2. The Morning After

Chapter Two: The Morning After

_Huey looked from afar as he picked up his second Rum and Coke for the night. He brought the tiny straw up to his lips and drunk almost half of his drink. He turned to the bartender and signaled for another one. _

"_You think you hitting them pretty hard, Huey?" Caesar asked his friend. Huey shook his head and continued to look out to the dance floor. Caesar followed his and saw what he was staring at. "You could just go out and dance to her," he offered. _

_He waved Caesar off. "Nah… she's having enough fun ol' boy over there," he replied, turning away toward the bar. "No point in ruinin' that for her."_

_Caesar could tell Huey was starting to get drunk. His Chicago accent would come out and he sounded more like Riley than his usual self. He motioned to Huey's drink. "How many of those have you had tonight?"_

"_Does it really matter?" Huey snapped back._

_Cindy walked up to the boys and wiped her forehead. "Let's bounce. This place is dead," she told them. "This dude I was dancin with said there's a better club ten minutes away from here."_

_Caesar's eyebrows rose. "You danced with another guy? And Riley didn't do nothin?"_

_Cindy shrugged. "Reezy ain't my daddy." She glanced over at Jazmine and motioned over to her. The boy she was dancing with gave her a slip of paper and she skipped over to the bar. "Come on girl, we leaving."_

_She pouted. "Fine," she said. They all walked out together where they saw Riley outside smoking a cigarette._

"_Damn, I been out here for ten minutes!" he complained. He took out the cigarette and threw it on the concrete. He smashed it the heel of his foot. "Come on, I'm ready to go!"_

_Cindy signaled for a taxi. "Most likely we gonna hafta get different taxis, so the club is in the Luxor. Meet us outside." The taxi pulled up and Cindy and Riley got in. "Jazzy, you comin with us?"_

"_Uh… Caesar can take my spot. I'll go with Huey," she announced. Caesar got in the taxi after Riley and as they drove off, Jazmine waved to them. She hailed another taxi and turned to Huey. "So… did you have fun?"_

_He shrugged. "I guess." _

_She rolled her eyes. "Are you seriously gonna be like that the whole night?" He raised an eyebrow. "'Oh I'm Huey, and I'm a complete asshole who doesn't like to do anything except sit at home and go to work,'" she imitated him, complete with a deep voice._

"_I'm sorry that I don't dance with some random person I met in a club," he retorted back, letting his jealously come out. "I thought that it wasn't you either, but apparently I was dead-ass wrong."_

"_Oh my God, I was just having fun!" she yelled back. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you mad that I was all over some random guy or are you mad because it wasn't you?" Huey chuckled and looked over Jazmine's head. "Aww, is Huey jelly of the random guy?"_

"_Whatever," he answered. The taxi finally pulled up and Huey quickly got in the back. "Luxor Hotel, please," he said to the driver. Jazmine jumped in next to Huey._

_She looked up at him. "If you just would admit it…"_

"_Admit what?"_

_She blinked her glossy eyes. "That you like me," she said matter-of-factly. Huey scoffed. She put her hand on his thigh. He looked down at her hand and back up to her eyes. "I already know, Huey. I just want you to admit to me and frankly yourself."_

_Huey smirked. "How many drinks have you had?"_

_Jazmine smiled and shrugged. "Three, or four… maybe five," she replied. She giggled. "Hell, maybe even more than that! I lost count after a while. Told you I can handle my liq-uorrrrr," she said, slurring the last word._

_He leaned in towards Jazmine's body. "Jazmine… I—"_

_The taxi stopped in front of the hotel, jerking them both forward. "Ten fifty," the cabbie said._

_Huey reached in his pocket and pulled out of his wallet. He pulled out a ten dollar and a five dollar bill. He handed him the money. "Keep the change," he told him._

_Jazmine and Huey both got out of the cab and walked to the front of the hotel. Jazmine quickly turned around and kissed Huey on the lips, surprising him. He could still taste the alcohol on her. She smirked and turned back around. "Come on! The others are waiting on us!" she said, acting as if nothing happened._

_Huey huffed and walked into the hotel, knowing this night was going to be longer than expected._

* * *

Huey groaned as he woke up. His eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. The only light in the room was coming from the window where the curtains refused to connect, making a sliver of sunlight radiate from the window to the adjacent wall.

Huey shivered when the AC started back up again. He lied back down on the bed. He sat back up again. He was in a bed… when he was supposed to be on the pullout bed. He rubbed his temples, suppressing his incoming hangover.

He hoped that if he turned to his side and hoped that he wasn't with Jazmine. He secretly wished that he didn't make a huge mistake while he was intoxicated and slept with his best friend, but he saw wisps of curly strawberry blonde hair as he turned to his left.

"Dammit," he whispered to himself. He had sex with the girl of his dreams last night and he couldn't remember a damn thing. He sighed and crawled out of the bed. He managed to find some sweatpants on the floor and slipped into them. He walked over the door and quietly went through, closing it so she wouldn't wake up.

He sat down on the couch and rubbed his aching head. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV, only to meet with the loud music of some rapper he's never heard of. He immediately shut it off, and groaned loudly. He needed to find some aspirin fast.

"Damn, Huey. Can you make any more noise early in the morning?" Caesar asked as he walked out of his own room. "It's like nine in the morning." He looked over at Huey. "You look like hell, man."

"I'm hungover. The fuck you think I'm gonna look like?" Huey snapped back.

"Right, I forgot. A hungover Huey is a more-pissed-off-than-usual Huey. Thanks for reminding me," Caesar retorted. He walked to the kitchen and started the coffee pot. "I told you to stop drinking those Rum and Cokes. But nah, niggas always gonna do what they want."

"What happened last night?" Huey questioned Caesar.

"Well, after we went to the second club, Riley and Cin left like, thirty minutes later. Then you had to take Jazzy out of the club after she started fighting that girl. When I came in, I don't think anyone was here. Then again, I may be wrong."

Huey blinked his eyes. Jazmine fought somebody? He thought it would be best not to bring it up. He shook his head. "I don't know what the hell happened after the first club." Caesar started to laugh hard. "What's so funny?"

"Wow, out of me and you… I was the responsible one!" he laughed. "Me, Michael Caesar, was more responsible than Huey Freeman. I thought I'd never see the day. Wait, wait, wait, lemme get a picture. This shit is going on Instagram."

Caesar approached Huey with his phone in his hands, but Huey slapped the device out of Caesar's hands. "Be glad it isn't broken," he simply replied, getting a look from Caesar as he picked up his phone.

"Can you two be civilized for once? Just for a couple of hours in the morning?" Jazmine whined as she walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. "I just want to go one day without hearing you guys bickering."

"And Princess Jazmine awakes and leaves her royal bedroom to be with us peasants," Caesar announced, handing her a coffee mug. "Here you go, your highness," Caesar said, bowing down and lifting the mug over his head.

She snatched the mug out of his hands. "Haha Caesar. You're oh, _so _funny." She filled her cup halfway, adding creamer and sugar to make it reach the top. She sat down on the couch next to Huey. She shoved her drink in front of his face. "You want some?"

"Does that even count as coffee anymore?" he asked. "It looks like a mug of high-blood pressure, diabetes, and a sugar-induced coma mixed in with a little bit of coffee."

She huffed and took of sip of her drink. "A simple no would have sufficed for me, Freeman. Not that huge lecture about how my coffee could kill me with one sip."

"Then that really wouldn't be a response from me, now would it?"

She sighed and touched his face. "Ah, a smartass. Can't live with them, and you would definitely be better off without them."

Huey shrugged. "How would you have gotten home without me? I told you that you couldn't handle drinking."

"Okay, okay it probably wasn't _that _bad. What was I doing that was so terrible?" she asked Huey.

"Umm… well… you got into a fight…"

"_What?_" Jazmine exclaimed. "A fight? With who? When? Tell me!"

Caesar chimed in at this point. "Oh, man, that fight was the best!" he added, coming into the living room. "So, this girl right? She was sitting at the bar next to Huey and she was being a little flirty with him, right? She was saying things like 'Oh, your afro is so sexy, you should come back to my hotel room.' You know, real hoe shit. But Huey wasn't giving the girl the time of day," he started. He pointed Jazmine. "Then, Jazzy walks over. Keep in mind, your blood alcohol level is probably three or four times the legal limit. You walking over, right? You go up to the girl and was like 'This is my seat.' And the girl was like 'Step off, bitch.' You got real mad next, like you was not having that shit today."

"Oh my God, what did I do?"

"You get the girl's drink and poured it _all over her_. Then you threw the cup in her lap! I was like 'Damn, son! Jazzy a thug!' The girl gets real pissed off. 'You fucked up my hair! Imma beat yo fucking ass, you little bitch!' and she swung at you, but you ducked. Like, that was some ninja shit right there! Something that Huey would do. So you ducked, and _WHAP! _You gave the girl a right hook so quick, like damn, I almost didn't see it. Then Huey had to pick you up and take you outside, but not before you kicked her nose with your heel. She started bleeding and shit and she had to run to the bathroom. I ain't never seen you fight like that!"

Jazmine giggled and shook her head. "I can't believe I fought someone… and won. I wonder what else happened last night. I hope it was something exciting." Huey started to cough. She rubbed his back. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine… I'm just a little cold," he lied, not looking over in her direction. "Can you look in my bag and get my black hoodie for me?" She nodded and went back into the room. He looked over to Caesar. "Ceez, I think I had sex with Jazmine."

"Well, it's about damn time! Shit, I was sick of all this not-flirting flirting that was going on. It was making me sick," he replied.

"I don't know for sure though," Huey added. He sighed and leaned his head back on the couch. "I mean, from a logical standpoint, all signs point that way. I was in her bed, I was half-naked, and even you said we left together."

"So, what's the problem? I thought you liked Jazzy."

"Don't get me wrong, I do. I _really _do. I just don't want the first time we were… _together_… to be a time that only happened because we were drunk and neither one of us remembered what happened," Huey explained. "There could be a chance she remembers, but she doesn't even recall the fight, and that happened before we had sex."

"You sound like a girl right now," Caesar remarked.

Huey sucked his teeth. "You're not fucking helping."

Caesar put his hand on chest and batted his eyelashes. "I want our first time to be special… with champagne and music and candles. And I want rose petals on the floor in the shape of a heart." Huey smacked him in the arm. "Hey man! I was just kidding!"

"Yeah, whatever. I don't even know how I'm going to…" Huey immediately quieted down when Jazmine came into the room. She held one of Huey's hoodie in her hand, and she wore the other one. "You're wearing my hoodie," Huey dumbly said. Caesar slapped his own forehead in response.

"Umm… yeah, your powers of deduction are amazing. Is it okay if I wear it?" Jazmine asked him. He nodded. "Thanks…" she said suspiciously. She looked over at him. "Huey, are you okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're acting really weird!" she answered. "Is it because I got your hoodie? I'm sorry; I really should've asked you before I got it." She started to lift the jacket over her head. "I can just take it off and put it—"

Huey pulled the hoodie back down. "Dear God, keep the hoodie on."

Jazmine heard her cell phone ringing in the other room. "I'll be right back," she announced, getting up and going into the bedroom.

He glanced over at Caesar. "Not a damn word."

Caesar burst into laughter. "You are so awkward, man! I mean, I thought you were awkward dude around her before, but _daaaamn_, that little scene right there… that takes the 'I'm awkward as fuck' cake. What did you tell her last night that made her sleep with you in the first place? It _had _to be some smooth talking… or she was drunk as hell."

"You don't think I got moves?"

Caesar stared at Huey, and started to laugh again. "You? Moves?" he cried out through laughs. "Come on Huey, you can't be serious!"

Huey leaned into the couch. "Well, I must've did something right, or we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

* * *

"_Yeah, I'll fuck you up, you stupid bitch! Come at me, fake-ass Nicki Minaj! Your ass is faker than three dollar bill! I'll rip your fucking weave out!" Jazmine yelled as she was being pulled by Huey. She slipped out of his grip and ran towards the random girl she had started a fight with. Huey followed Jazmine and grabbed her waist before she could hit the girl again. Jazmine tried to squirm out of his arms, but she was failing. She smirked and kicked as hard as she could, hitting the girl in the nose. "Haha! Got your motherfucking nose kicked in, you basic bitch!"_

"_Alright, Rocky, we need to get you home," Huey said, dragging her into the hotel lobby. "Are you done fighting every girl you see, or are you going to behave?"_

"_I'm not some damsel in distress, okay? You don't have to carry me around like this," Jazmine noted. "And I don't fight every girl I see, just that bitch with the horse hair. She doesn't know I'm from the fucking streets!"_

_Huey scoffed. "What streets are you from? I don't think people are intimidated with people from Timid Deer Lane." He stopped on the street and sat her down on her feet. "You think you can walk?"_

"_Yes!" she yelled at him. She walked five steps and collapsed onto the concrete. "Okay, maybe I can't..." Huey sighed and picked her up and held her up by the waist and continued to walk. "You're so _strong_, Huey," she drunkenly giggled. _

"_You know, you real flirty when you drunk," Huey remarked._

"_You're sexy when you are," she retorted back. He smirked and hailed a taxi. "I want you so bad right now," she let out, smiling at him._

_Huey rolled his eyes. "Jazmine—"_

"_No I'm serious!" she answered. She opened the door of the taxi and jumped in the back. Huey followed her. "MGM Hotel, please." She turned back to Huey. "Can we… just be for real for a second? You like me, I like you… why can't we just _fuck_?"_

"_You always this horny when you drunk?" _

_Jazmine giggled and put her hands on his lap. "I just know what I want, Huey. And what I want… is a six foot three tall mocha-skinned boy, no… _man_ with maroon eyes and the cutest afro ever._

_Huey laughed. "You have no fucking idea how bad I want to." He scooted her closer to her. "You don't know… how bad I want… a five and a half light-skinned mulatto woman, with sexy ass green eyes and curly ass strawberry blonde hair."_

_Jazmine licked her lips and moved close to his ear. "Then you can have me. _All_ of me."_

_Huey looked her up and down. "Mmm… I can't wait." He kissed her lips softly once, then twice. "Just wait till we get to the hotel."_

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

_Huey pushed Jazmine into the front door of their room and kissed her roughly. The sloppy kisses haven't stopped since they got on the elevator. He pulled away from her and looked into her emerald green eyes. He licked his lips and went back for more. He lowered his head down to her neck._

_She giggled. "That tickles, baby." She ran her fingers through his cotton-like hair. She stood high on her heels, and she was still six inches shorter. Huey lifted her slightly until she was eye level with him. "Hi," she breathed out._

"_Hey," he answered back. "Do you wanna go inside? You gotta get out your key, though. You kinda wrapped around my pocket right now."_

_Jazmine got out the key from her purse. She swiped the door behind her and he led her in towards the bedroom. He sat her down at the edge of the bed. "Don't keep me waiting all night, Freeman." He got on top of her, moving her to the front of the bed. Her eyes never left his. He lifted the dress over her head._

"_Sexy," he remarked, looking at her lacy lingerie. _

"_All for you," she answered back. She started to unbutton Huey's shirt. "I think it's your turn to surprise me." The shirt came off first, then the undershirt, and finally she moved to his belt. Her breath quicken as he slipped out of his jeans. "Sexy," she repeated._

_He connected with her lips for what seemed like the thousandth time that night, leaving her craving more than just kisses. Her body was aching for him to go faster, although she loved the feel of his soft lips upon hers. _

_His kisses started to trail lower, as if he read her mind, until he stopped at her waist. Her head fell to the pillow and she gripped the sheets tight, bracing for what he was about to do. He removed her of her black lace v-string and threw it on the ground. He could see her chest rise up and down as he bent down._

"_Are you going to keep teasing me, Freeman?" she panted. She gasped loudly as she felt a finger enter her. He smirked as he heard a moan emit from the top of the bed. He pumped faster in her, causing her to arch her back. She bit her lip hard as he switched from his finger to his tongue. "Don't… stop…" she exhaled._

_He paused for a moment. "Never babe," he responded. Her legs twitched uncontrollably as he continued to hit her sweet spot over and over again. She clutched the sheets as tight as she possibly could, and her moans of pleasure reached higher octaves._

"_Huey!" she yelled out as she released everything. She loosened her grip on the comforter and tried to catch her breath. "Damn… you were good," she said through breaths._

_He smugly shrugged. "I do my best." He looked in his pants for his wallet, hoping to find a condom that he usually keeps in there. He pulled out the golden square and dropped the wallet on the floor. _

_He turned back to Jazmine, who was already under the sheets and was waiting for Huey to return to her. He got in next to her and unrolled the condom onto him. He positioned himself on top of her, supporting his weight with his arms. "Ready?" he asked her._

_She nodded quickly. She closed her eyes and held her breath as he slid into her. She couldn't help but let out a small sound of bliss. She lifted her hips slightly, making him go deeper inside her. She moaned loudly at his tender touch on her waist. _

_Huey hissed out in ecstasy when Jazmine dug her fingernails into his back. He gradually quickened his pace, his breaths sharp and low. Jazmine looked up at Huey, who shifted his gaze back down to her, earning a legitimate smile from both of them. She let out a loud moan as she reached her peak. Huey wasn't far behind her, shutting his eyes as he finished. He rolled off of her and silently tried to catch his breath. _

"_Damn… that was better than before," Jazmine remarked, fanning her sweaty body. She turned her head towards him. "We should do that more often. You are… amazing. And I waited eleven years for this." Huey grunted in response. "Huey… I love you. Always have."_

"_Jazzy… baby… I love you, too."_

* * *

"Why don't you just tell her?"

"I don't want to."

"But it'll be better if you did. You know Jazmine; she'll hold a grudge on you forever if you keep this away from her, especially since she asked you what happened."

Huey sighed. He knew Caesar was right, but he didn't want to tell her, even if she had a crush on him. "I don't even know if it actually happened!"

Caesar scoffed. "You are really not gonna face facts right now? You, of all the people in the entire world, are going to not look at the facts in front of you? You had sex with her; get over it."

Huey raised an eyebrow at his friend. "And you're touchy about this because…?"

Caesar sighed. "Jazz is like a little sister to me. I wanna protect her from stupid shit and all those things big brothers do. And you… you're like a big brother who don't know shit sometimes and I gotta teach you about things."

"One, Jazmine's older than you… by about six months. Second, the way you said that makes it sound a little incestuous," Huey said.

"Nigga, you know what I meant!"

Huey shrugged as Jazmine entered the room again. "Who were you talking to?" Huey asked her.

She flopped onto the couch. "My madre. She was just asking to see how everything was, if I was still in one piece, although I did cautiously leave out the 'I got wasted drunk and fought a girl' part out. She even asked about you Huey!"

Huey and Caesar exchanged a look. "Really? What did you tell her?" he asked her.

"I just told her you were doing fine, and that we were just hanging out right now."

"Did she ask about me?" Caesar questioned, giving her a wide smile.

Jazmine shook her head. "I don't think my mom really cares about a guy who came over a lot and ate all our food back when we were in high school."

Huey smirked and held in his laugh. He gave Jazmine a high five. "Y'all two ain't funny," Caesar said, pouting.

Cindy came down the stairs and looked at the people on the couch. Her hair was in a high messy bun and she was wearing a tank top and one of Riley's basketball shorts. "_Damn…_" Huey and Caesar both said at the same time.

"Where's Riley?" she said in a gravelly voice.

"Why does it sound like you've been smoking five packs a day for thirty years?" Caesar inquired.

"Nigga, I ain't playin' with yo goofy ass!" Cindy snapped. "Now imma repeat it: Where the _fuck _is Riley?"

Everyone was quiet.

"Oh, so now everyone's on hush-mouth, huh?" Cindy replied, getting highly upset. "Where the fuck is he? Is out with another fucking girl? Is he hidin' from me?" She stomped around and started looking through doors, yelling for her boyfriend.

"Calm down, _Fatal Attraction_, he hasn't been down here," Huey said.

She stopped in her tracks. "He hasn't been down here?" she repeated. "Well, he ain't fucking upstairs!" She immediately changed her mood. "Oh my God, where is he? What if he's hurt?"

"Yo, homegirl is pretty crazy…" Caesar whispered to Huey and Jazmine. They nodded in agreement.

Cindy's phone rang. She quickly picked it up. "Hello?" she answered. "Riley! Where are you…? What you mean 'give the phone to Huey?' What the fuck does he have to do with anything…? You shoulda called his ass!"

"Cindy, give me the damn phone," Huey said, watching the scene from afar. Cindy rolled her eyes and handed the phone to Huey. "Hello?"

"_Huey. You gotta help me man, I think I really fucked up this time,_" Riley said in the phone.

"Alright, where are you?"

Riley sighed. "_I'm in the Clark County Detention Center._"


	3. The Subtle Clues

_**A/N: **Yeah, yeah… I know I haven't been doing anything for the longest time… and I've been EXTREMELY lazy over the break… but I did manage to squeeze out another chapter before I go back to school! By the way guys... I LEGITLY need you to review! The reason why I haven't worked on this story is because I don't know if people actually like this story! If you like it, just send me a review... even if it's only one word with "Good." or "Butts." in it. I'm really not picky because anything counts. Okay, enough of me begging, here's my story!_

* * *

Chapter Three: The Subtle Clues

"Riley Freeman."

The girl behind the counter looked up at Huey, and then back to her magazine. "It ain't visiting hours," she replied, turning a page and popping her gum.

"I'm not here to visit him; I'm his lawyer. He told me to come up here because he's being questioned."

She looked him up and down. "Lawyers gotta come durin' visiting hours, too."

Huey sighed. "If you're being questioned, you have a right to an attorney, i.e. me. If the police decide to question someone outside of visiting hours, then by law, I have to come _outside_ of visiting hours."

The girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever, nigga." She handed him the sign-in sheet and a visitor's badge. "Ain't you little young to be a lawyer?"

"Aren't you a little old to be this incompetent at your job?" he snapped back. She glared at Huey and went back to her magazine, obviously insulted.

He followed the signs to the place where the questioning rooms were. Luckily, the county jail was small and there were only two rooms and one of the room's door was open. He knocked on the second door.

A tall officer opened the door. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Huey Freeman, I'm the attorney for Riley Freeman," he answered.

The officer looked Huey up and down. He was dressed in a white Oxford shirt and black pants, as if he rolled out of bed. In truth, this was the closest he could come to formal clothing, and even then, he had to borrow the shirt from Caesar. "You sure? Have you even passed the bar?"

"I know how this looks. But I was on vacation with my idiotic brother when he got arrested. This is probably the best thing I have," Huey explained.

The officer glanced at the other one sitting down, who shrugged. "I guess," he said unsure. He moved out of the way to let Huey in. When he sat down, he swiftly kicked Riley on the side of his leg.

"Ow, nigga!" Riley yelled in pain. "Keep yo hands and feet to yoself!"

"What are the charges?" Huey questioned, completely ignoring his brother's cries.

The officer sitting down glanced at Riley, and then back at Huey. He slid the papers over to Huey. "He's charged with disorderly conduct, possession of marijuana under one ounce, and resisting arrest."

He looked over the papers. "All of these are misdemeanors in the state of Nevada," he replied simply after setting the papers down. "Why can't he just take the fine and we can leave?"

"The fine? Nigga, I ain't taking no fine!"

The officer pointed at Riley. "That's the reason why he hasn't left yet. We've been persuading him to take the deal the whole time." He looked at Riley. "Listen kid, we really don't want you to be here longer than needed. We got people who are really bad and we need these beds."

"Can I have a moment to talk with my client in private?" Huey asked. The officers left the room quickly. Huey glared at Riley. "Take the deal," he said quietly.

"I ain't gonna take no fuckin fine by no bitch—"

"What'd wrong with you Riley? You can't leave until Monday if you keep being stubborn like this! Then, if you go to court, they'll either give the damn fine over again or they send you to jail because you have priors and the cops here were too stupid to go and check those! Maybe it's because they didn't want to deal with your dumb ass for the weekend!" Huey yelled at his brother.

"Ain't nothing wrong with being in jail for the weekend…" Riley replied.

Huey folded his arms over his chest. "How would you get home? Did you forget that your plane wasn't bought by you, but by Cindy's parents?" he scoffed. "And how are you going to explain that to Granddad?"

Riley thought about it for a second. "Yeah, I ain't think about that…"

Huey sat back down. "Yeah, I bet you didn't."

They both sat in silence for a minute, staring at the walls. Then Riley turned towards his brother. "How was your night?" he asked him. Huey shrugged. "C'mon, man! It had to better than that."

"I'm trying to focus on getting you out of here," he replied.

Riley scoffed. "Must've been pretty bad…"

Huey opened his mouth, but quickly closed as soon as the officers came back in. "Did you come up with a decision?" the taller officer asked as he sat down in the seat.

"Yeah, my _lawyer _advised me to just take the fine," Riley said, looking over at Huey. "So… how much is all this worth?"

The other officer looked down at the papers. "It looks like it's going to be worth… 1800 dollars."

"Eighteen hundred—!" he snapped. He glanced at Huey. "These niggas gonna charge me almost two grand?! This is a travesty, a shocker, a… a damn shame!" he yelled out. "I ain't payin you pigs no two grand! Y'all got me fucked up!"

Huey shot daggers at his brother. "Riley!" Riley sighed and muttered something under his breath. "What?" he asked him.

"Fine! Damn, I'll pay the shit! Jesus…" he finally answered, as the officers passed the papers over to Riley to sign.

"I'll be waiting outside for you," Huey said, getting up. He opened the door and walked out to the waiting room, where Cindy, Caesar, and Jazmine were waiting. Cindy was the first to notice him. She hopped up quick.

"Everything okay? He doesn't have to stay here until tomorrow, right? I mean… can he leave?" she frantically questioned. Huey looked at her and he could tell she was distraught about this. Her blue eyes were dark and red-rimmed. "Huey! Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's okay," he answered back. He turned to the door. "He should be coming out here soon—"

"Riley!" she yelled, running past Huey and jumping into the arms of her boyfriend. She hugged him tightly. "Oh my God, I'm so glad you're okay!"

"I was only gone for the night…" he replied quietly, slightly hugging Cindy back. A few seconds into the embrace, Riley looked around and saw people were staring at them, including their friends. "Cin… people is watchin."

She wiped her eyes and turned around. "The fuck y'all lookin at?" she snapped. Everyone went back to their activities, taking their eyes off the couple. She concentrated back on Riley. She slapped his arm. "Don't you fuckin scare me like that!" she scolded.

"Ow! My bad Cin! Shit!" he said, rubbing the painful spot. "Damn, is everybody gonna get a hit in today?" Caesar stepped closer to Riley. "Don't even, nigga."

"I'm just glad to see you back, Riley," Jazmine joined in.

"Thanks, Mariah," he replied. She rolled her eyes. "Can we move this reunion somewhere else? I don't wanna to be here anymore." Cindy grabbed his hand as he led the way out of the jail. As Riley hailed a taxi, he turned back to group. "I'm guessin no partyin tonight, huh?"

"No" was unanimous decision, coming almost immediately as the words escaped his mouth. He shrugged and got into the cab. As usual, he left with Cindy and Caesar while Jazmine and Huey stated behind, waiting for the next cab to show up.

"I'm sleepy," Jazmine announced, laying her head on his arm. "We should go and get some coffee or something."

"Or… we could go back to the hotel and can get free coffee there," Huey answered, hailing for a taxi. She pouted. She grabbed his hand and they ran down the street. "Jazmine, where the hell are we going?" he asked her.

"Don't really know!" she yelled back, trying to weave through the mess of people that happened to be on the sidewalk early in the morning. She immediately stopped in front of a donut shop, almost making Huey run into her back. "Let's go in here!"

He stopped to catch his breath. "We ran… to get a damn… donut?" he panted.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Freeman. You're in a different city at 10 a.m. in the morning with your best friend about to go into a weird donut shop. For once, you should be… spontaneous!" She looked inside. "Maybe they'll have one of those organic donuts or something that sounds right up your alley."

"Probably not, but if you want to in there, I guess I'll go."

Jazmine smiled and walked in to the little shop, followed by Huey. They walked up to the line that was already forming. Huey huffed a little, but when he looked down to see Jazmine's face brighten up as she carefully studied the menu, he softened up. He liked how her nose wrinkled she read something she didn't like and he also liked how—

"Damn it!" the man muttered. Huey accidentally bumped into the guy, causing the coffee he had in his hand to spill all over his suit. He tried to wipe his shirt, but he only making the stain bigger.

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry, man. Listen, I'll buy you a new one," Huey answered. Jazmine passed over some napkins and handed them to Huey. He gave them to the man. "Jesus, I'm really sorry. Do you want me to get you another one?"

The man put his hands up. "It's okay, dude. Just try not to stare at your girlfriend for too long," he replied, walking back to the counter to get another cup.

Jazmine looked over to Huey. "You were staring at me?"

His face immediately reddened. "What? No! I was just… staring… I was just thinking about something… and…" he was started stumbling over his words. He really hated when he couldn't speak like a normal person. "Shit," he murmured under his breath.

"Aww, that's _so _adorable!" she cooed, pinching his cheek. "It's okay; you don't have to explain anything to me. Because you are really sucking at explaining yourself."

"Shut up," he silently said, making him blush even harder.

Huey walked up to the counter and waited as Jazmine ordered her breakfast: a large peppermint mocha frappe with extra whipped cream and a dozen donut holes, half frosted and half powdered. Huey ordered a regular black coffee with soy milk and much to Jazmine's chagrin, paid for the food.

"You don't have to, y'know," Jazmine protested. "I _can _pay for it myself."

Huey rolled his eyes as he gave her the bag and drink. "You get me things all the time; the least I can do is buy a ten dollar breakfast." He looked at her coffee. "You're getting another cup of diabetes?" he asked.

"I didn't finish my first one!" she protested. Jazmine skipped to an open table that was facing a window and onto the street. He walked behind her and sat on the tall stool next to Jazmine. She was already into her drink and opened her bag of donut holes. She popped one in her mouth. "Want one?" she offered.

"Nah, I'm good."

She pouted. "Come on, Huey! It isn't going to kill you or anything!" She gave him her famous puppy dog pout, which he knew he couldn't resist. She could basically tell him anything she wanted as long as she gave him the look. Huey sighed and turned towards her. "Open your mouth," she commanded.

He raised his eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because I don't know where your grimy hands have been!" she jokingly said. "Now open your mouth," she repeated. He did as he was told and she placed a powdered donut in his mouth. He started to chew. "Good right?"

He shrugged. "Eh," he finally retorted. She huffed and threw up her hands in defeat. "What? It's alright."

"You are hard to please, Huey," she said, sipping on her drink. She looked over to him. "You have something on your lip," she pointed out. "Here." She used her thumb to wipe the excess powder on his lip. She gave him a thumbs-up and returned to her donut holes, but not before taking a picture of the meal.

Huey licked his bottom lip, where Jazmine had touched him. The sudden touch shot electrical sparks all throughout his body, even though all she did was wipe his lip. Her finger was warm and soft and little piece of him wanted her to touch his lips again… only this time with her lips.

His thoughts were put aside when his phone vibrated in his pocket, causing him to jump a little. He grabbed his phone and opened the text he got from his other best friend.

_**Caesar:**__ Where the hell are you?_

Huey rolled his eyes that Caesar just now noticed weren't with the rest of the group. He texted a reply.

_**Huey:**__ We went to a coffee shop?_

_**Caesar**__**:**__ I saw a pic on Instagram… so you're on a date?_

Huey quickly put his phone down and ignored his idiotic friend. Huey knew that if he replied to it, he would only dig his hole that he was in deeper. But as soon as he picked up his drink, his phone went off again.

_**Caesar**__**:**__ I knew it! You're totally on a date! You didn't even deny it!_

_**Huey:**__ Shut up._

"Who was that?" Jazmine asked, licking the whipped cream off her straw.

Huey was slightly distracted by the movement, but came to after he shook his head and looked away. "Uhh, it was just Ceez. He was wondering where we were."

"He's just now noticing that we aren't there?" she asked. Huey shrugged. "That boy is super," she giggled. Huey smirked. "Seriously, thanks for the breakfast. You are like, the most amazing person I've ever met."

"Thanks, I guess," he replied.

Jazmine threw her bag in the trash and followed Huey back out to the streets. "Let's walk to the hotel; we're only a couple of blocks away."

Jazmine grabbed Huey's hand. He blushed slightly, but he made sure that Jazmine didn't see. They walked down the strip for about ten minutes before they reach the hotel. Huey's body felt fluttery the whole time walking to the hotel room. He hated when she made him feel like this; she was doing it without even trying.

"Where the hell were you two?" Cindy asked the couple as they walked through the door. "You niggas have been gone for about an hour."

"Do I have to tell you every time I go out somewhere, Cindy?" Huey retorted as he walked back into his room. Jazmine giggled as she followed Huey. "We went to a coffee shop. No big deal." Huey flopped onto the pull-out bed. He closed his eyes and sighed. He turned his head to the side and peeked out of the corner of his eye to see Jazmine sitting on the bed looking at her phone. "Gonna put a new picture on Instagram?" Huey jokingly asked her.

"Haha, Huey. Actually, I was just looking up things to do in Las Vegas," Jazmine answered back.

"We're not doing anything tonight… especially after last night."

Jazmine groaned. "I took off three days for this. I'm not just going to sit down and do nothing all night. Why can we do anything without getting super wasted?"

"Because of people like Riley and Cindy," Huey told her. He sat up to look at her. "I mean, me, you, and Caesar could do something, but if those two idiots go with us again, one of them will get arrested… again."

Jazmine pouted as Caesar knocked on the door. After three knocks, he came in anyway, not waiting on anyone to answer him. He jumped on the bed next to Jazmine. "So… you bring anything back?" He jokingly questioned.

Jazmine slightly pushed him. "You should've gone with us," Jazmine said. "You know you're always hungry…"

"How am I supposed to know you guys were going out somewhere?" he replied back. He nodded towards Huey. "Did you think of this?"

"You know I didn't," Huey said, staring up at the ceiling. "I was actually dragged there if you really wanted to know. Jazmine had a sugar fix, apparently."

"Don't say you didn't enjoy it!" Jazmine announced. "I even made him eat a donut hole! He said he didn't like it, but I knew he secretly enjoyed it. He was all like, 'Oh my God, this is the greatest thing I've ever tasted in my entire life.'"

He shook his head. "I definitely didn't do that."

Jazmine pointed at Huey. "You may have not said that, but didn't you run into someone and made the guy spill coffee all over his self because you are staring at me? _And_ didn't he call me your girlfriend?" She turned to Caesar. "You shoulda seen his face."

Caesar busted out into a fit of laughter. "I bet that was the funny shit ever!"

Huey sat up. "It was an accident!"

Jazmine giggled a little as well. "I believe you Huey," she said unconvincingly. Huey glared at her, which made Jazmine and Caesar laugh even more. Huey threw a pillow at them and left the room. "C'mon Huey, I was just playing," Jazmine said as she ran after him.

"Did we hurt his feelings?" Caesar said from the room.

"Don't do that," she simply said. She His shoulder and looked up at him and gave him a glare. He knew exactly what it meant.

"Don't do what?" Huey dumbly asked, even though he knew exactly what he was doing.

"You're throwing a hissy fit," she informed him.

"A _hissy_ fit?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah! You're doing that thing when someone pisses you off, you like to simply walk out of the room without saying anything else." She folded her arms across her chest. "That's not a good look, Freeman," she smirked.

He grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and popped the top. "I'm sorry… I guess," he said.

She rolled her eyes and walked towards the room. Huey followed her, but he was stopped by Jazmine, who had her hand up in front of him. "Ceez, you gotta go too," she said behind her.

"Aw, what?" he answered as he got out of the bed. He dragged his feet on the carpet until Jazmine slightly pushed him out.

"I need to take a shower and I don't want you two creepers to see me naked," she answered, closing the door. Huey felt the color drain from his face.

"I bet Huey—" Caesar started, but was interrupted by a swift kick from Huey in the back of the leg. "Ow! Damn, that hurt!" he cried, rubbing the sore spot.

"Come back in about… thirty minutes," she said, closing the door fully. They both heard the lock on the door click into place.

"You… have an anger problem, Huey," Caesar said, sitting on the couch. Huey groaned and lied on the love seat that was next to the couch. "C'mon, that couldn't be something you've never heard before."

"I'm… thinking," he answered. Caesar rolled his eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me."

Riley came from upstairs and went straight to the kitchen. "What up niggas?" he said as he got a soda out of the refrigerator. He walked over to the living room and saw his brother on the couch with his eyes closed. "The fuck wrong with him?"

"He's… _thinking_," Caesar replied. He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. "Did he do this shit often?"

Riley nodded. "At least twice a week," he informed Caesar. "What he thinkin about?"

Caesar smirked. "I can think of a few things. Y'know he and Jazzy had sex."

"Word?" Riley said, sitting on the coffee table. He smirked. "Congrats, nigga."

Huey opened his eyes. "Caesar, do you want to say that any louder? I'm pretty sure Jazmine didn't hear you."

"Bet you he's being a bitch about it," Riley said.

"You know he's being a bitch about it," Caesar responded. "All you gotta do is tell her. Then you can get all the ass you want." Huey glared at him. "You know it's true, though."

As much as he hated to admit it, he knew Caesar was right. And he didn't like to show his vulnerable side. For some reason, he had a feeling she would reject him or tell him off, even though that wasn't in her character. He may be extremely smart when it comes to politics or current events, but he was pretty uneducated when he came to girls… especially Jazmine.

"He's definitely thinking about it," Riley said, staring at his brother. All three of the boys heard the bedroom door unlock, and saw Jazmine walk out of the room. "Shit, you may get your chance right now," he added. Huey sat up. "Fuck, you really about to do it?" Huey walked over to her as Caesar and Riley looked on with wide eyes.

"Oh, shit," they both said at the same time.

_I'm really about to do it. Just go… and tell her how you feel. That shouldn't be too hard. You can do this, Huey. You can do this._

Huey took a deep breath. "Uhh… Jazmine?" he quietly said, so quiet that she almost didn't hear him. She stopped in her tracks and turned to face them. Caesar and Riley were watching intensely from the living room.

"Yeah?" Jazmine said, blinking her bright emerald eyes at Huey. Her damp hair was sticking to her face, and flowing over her shoulders. She was wearing Huey's hoodie and jeans shorts, distracting him. He was frozen in place. "Yes, Huey?" she repeated, after she didn't get an answer.

_Say something, you fucking idiot!_

"You're wearing my hoodie," he finally said, mentally slapping himself after the words escaped his mouth. Caesar and Riley groaned in the background, both physically slapping their forehands.

_No, goddammit! That's not what you're supposed to fucking say!_

"That was a pretty big buildup for nothing, Huey," she laughed. She looked down at the hoodie that she was wearing. "I think I look better in it, don't you think?" she smiled.

_She's flirting with you! Say something back!_

Healy blinked and nodded his head, then he went back to sit on the couch. Caesar and Riley glared at him; he gave them a shrug in return. Jazmine looked confused, but thought nothing of it and went back into the room.

_This is some ol' bullshit._

Riley smacked him in his arm. "The fuck was that, nigga?" he yelled at him. Huey groaned and laid back down on the sofa.

"Yeah man, you were so close!" Caesar said.

"I guess I choked."

"Hell yeah, you fucking choked!" Riley laughed. "You look so bitch-made! I thought you actually gonna man up for once, but no… you prove me right. Once again." He walked towards the stairs. He took one look at Huey, and started laughing again before walking up to his bedroom.

"The shit is getting ridiculous, Huey," Caesar said, shaking his head. "You better tell her before _I_ tell her."

"You serious?" Huey asked him.

"As a heart attack," Caesar replied.

"As tempting as that sounds Caesar… No. I think I need to tell her myself, even though I can't say it myself. I don't know man… is just that every time I'm anywhere near her, I want to… I don't even know."

"Sounds like you got it bad," Caesar retorted. Huey was about to answer back, but Jazmine entered the room, which made Huey immediately close his mouth. Caesar turned around to see what Huey was looking at. He smiled at Jazmine. "What's up, girlie?"

She sat down next to Huey. "I just had the greatest idea," she announced. She turned towards Huey. "I know you don't like going to amusement parks, but there is one at this one hotel and it's pretty huge. Since we can't handle our liquor, we should go there." She gave Huey her famous puppy dog look. "Please Huey? Can we please go?"

Caesar gave the same look. "Yeah Huey? Can we please go?" he asked with the same lightness in his voice as Jazmine.

He rolled his eyes at Caesar then turned to Jazmine. "If you want to…"

She smiled brightly. "We're going to have so much fun!" she excitedly said. She shot up. "I'm going to go tell Cindy and Riley… I hope I don't see anything while I'm up there." She went up the stairs and knocked on the door. She went in after a couple more knocks.

"Man… Jazzy could ask you to do anything and you would agree to it," Caesar said, shaking his hand. "You gotta to be the only dude who is pussy whipped without getting pussy… more than once. One night and she making you do all this?"

Huey threw a pillow at Caesar's head and went to his bedroom. He sighed heavily. This was going to be an interesting day.


	4. The Other Point of View

A/N: Happy Super Bowl Sunday, you guys! Although the team I went for didn't win, (btdubbs, congrats Ravens fans!) at least you get a update out of it!(: Also, to the anon "Keelynn" who said I didn't need your opinions, it's kind of the opposite. I am a _total _review whore. I legitimately get _so so so so sooooo _excited when someone reviews my story. With that, read the chapter (inspired by "Jazavelli" who gave me idea of doing it Jazmine's point of view, thanks little chickadee! glad you're back!) and hit me up with a review when you finish! Don't think i don't read them... because I totes do!

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Chapter Four: The Other Point of View

Jazmine looked over at Huey as they both walked out of the hotel together. She held the white teddy bear that was in her hand close to her chest. "Thanks again for winning this for me," she smiled. "You really didn't have to, though."

He shrugged. "It was no big deal."

She smiled to herself again. This day couldn't have gone better for Jazmine. First, he told her she "looked nice" in her dress, then he implicitly said that if she got scared on the roller coaster, she could hold his hand, which she took immediately because first drop was hella scary, _and _to top it all off, he won the bear for her.

So yeah, it was kind of a big deal to her.

Huey signaled for a cab, and then looked down at Jazmine. She swore that he smiled ever so slightly. Her heart was beating fast. She wanted to say it. She wanted to just be open and honest. She took a deep breath. The cab pulled up to the curb. The best time to do it was now. The worst he could say to her is no.

Well, he _could_ laugh in her face, but she hasn't seen him laugh in their ten year plus friendship, so the odds of that happening are probably slim to none.

"Hey Huey—" she started.

She saw his gaze go from focused on her to behind her. She sighed hard and closed her eyes. If it was who she thought it was…

"What's up, Ceez?" Huey asked as Caesar walked up to them. "I thought you were going with Riley and Cindy."

He scoffed. "They said they were going out to eat and they don't want any 'gay niggas to fuck it up' and be there with them," he explained. "So… I'm stuck with you two for the night." He looked at Jazmine's scowl. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

_Caesar, I hate you with a burning passion._

She shook her head and slid into the cab after Huey. She placed her bear in her lap and looked forward at the traffic in front of the cab.

"Where did you get the bear from?" Caesar asked her.

She held it up from him. "Huey won it for me!" she said proudly. "You know those games where you have to knock over the old milk bottles with a baseball? Well, Huey is _really_ good at that game." Caesar smirked at Huey. She shifted her gaze from Caesar to Huey. "What?"

"Nothing!" Huey immediately responded, shooting a glare at Caesar.

"You are _so _weird," Jazmine giggled. She twirled her finger around her hair and grabbed her bear as the taxi halted in front of their hotel. Caesar was the first one out, followed by Jazmine, then Huey. She hummed to herself as they were in the elevator.

"And you call me weird?" he said questioningly.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm not weird… I'm eccentric."

He slightly smirked and nodded at her response. "That's one way of putting it."

Caesar rolled his eyes. "How come you two aren't dating yet?" he wondered out loud as they got off on the top floor. "All you two do is flirt."

Why _weren't_ they dating yet? Jazmine asked herself this a million times. It was the question of the week, the year, the century. They so close and comfortable with each other, the next logical step would be eventually to ease in a relationship. It not like she didn't want it to happen… it just hasn't.

She shrugged and put on a flirty smile. "I'm waiting for Huey to make the first move," she replied. "I guess I'll be waiting forever, huh?"

Caesar erupted in laughter as Huey's cheeks redden. "_Daaaamn_! She hoed you!" Caesar yelled between laughs. Huey sucked his teeth, which indicated that he was officially mad. Caesar still continued to laugh at Jazmine's good comeback.

"I'm just kidding, Huey!" she giggled. His scowl remained unchanged as he swiped his hotel key and unlocked the door. She poked him in his side. "Huey…" she said in a sing-songy voice. He didn't respond to her. She pouted at him. "Come on Huey! Don't be mad at me!" she whined.

"Just give him a kiss; I'll bet he'll feel better after that," Caesar remarked.

"Shut up, Caesar!"

She blinked a couple of times and stood on her toes. She gave him on small peck on his cheek, then stood flat on her feet. "Are you okay now?" she asked him. He nodded quickly. She tapped him on his shoulder. "Stop being so sensitive, Freeman. Jeez, you're acting like me!"

"Damn… Jazzy the only girl that could kiss you and insult you at the same time," Caesar joked. "That takes guts."

She tapped her chin. "I'm going to take that as compliment for now," she replied. She picked up her purse and walked to the door of her room. "I'm gonna change. Don't come in!" She closed the door with her foot as she immediately unlocked her phone.

_Me: What if I told you something happened?_

She got out her night clothes and laid them out on the bed when she got a text back.

_Cindy: Something that I already don't know? Like…?_

Jazmine contemplated her next answer.

_Me: What if, maybe I… kinda sorta… kissed him?_

_Cindy: Tf? Why does the interesting stuff happen when I'm not there? What happened? Did you like it? Did he like it? Was his lips soft? Details, woman, details!_

She giggled at Cindy's reaction as she took off her dress. Actually, this was really close to Jazmine's reaction when Cindy said she kissed Riley about two years ago. She stopped to think about it; they've been only going out for two years now? It seemed like forever.

_Me: Well, it was only on the cheek…_

_Cindy: Still counts! You gettin bolder, Dubois._

_Me: Maybe I'm tired of being on the sideline for years! I should go up to him and tell him I want to fuck him._

_Cindy: You tried that not too long ago… remember?_

_Me: Best night of my life… how could I forget? ;)_

There was a knock on the door that made Jazmine jump. She threw her phone on the bed and got dressed in her clothes. "Come in!" she said loudly. Huey swung open the door and looked at Jazmine. He looked her up and down. "…Yes?" she asked, not sure why he made such a bold entrance.

"What was that?" he questioned.

She started to play dumb. "What was what, Huey?" she asked back.

Huey shook his head. "No, don't do that. You know exactly what I'm talking about," he answered. He sighed hard. Was it _really _that hard to say that she kissed him? "Why did you… kiss me?" he finally said.

_Good job, Huey._

She shrugged. "Why does anybody do anything?" she said. She fell onto the bed. "Don't worry about it; it didn't mean anything," she lied. She knew that it meant _way _more that it she was making it seem. "It was only so you can stop being so pouty. It's cute on me, not on you."

_Although you look cute either way._

He sat down on the futon and started to unbutton his shirt. Jazmine quickly looked away and pretended to engrossed in her phone, but she couldn't help stealing peeks at him as he changed into a black shirt and a pair of old basketball shorts.

Jazmine saw the look on his face as he lied down. "You know you can get in the bed, if you want," she told him. He turned towards and raised an eyebrow at her. She blushed when she realized her mistake. She tried to redeem herself. "Wait… no, that's not I meant."

He sat up. "So you weren't asking me to sleep with you?" he quipped with a smirk.

She reddened even more. She hated when he turned things on her. It was only fun she did it to him, not the other way around. She started to smile and bit her lip. "Only if you want to," she retorted in a sultry tone. His face changed from a smirk to his usual straight face. He couldn't possibly think he could out-flirt Jazmine. "So does this mean I win?"

He dropped onto his pillow. "Whatever, I'm going to sleep," he announced, turning away from her.

Jazmine looked at the alarm clock sitting on the nightstand. "It's only eleven o'clock!"

"So? It's two back home."

Jazmine rolled her eyes. "You suck, Huey." He grunted in response. She swung her legs over the side and got out of the bed. "You can't be serious. You really about to go to sleep?" she asked. There was no reply. "I'm just gonna bother you until you answer me." She sat down on the side of the futon. She slightly poked him in his back. "Huey. Huey. _Huey. Huuuuuey_…" she repeated over and over again in different tones.

He pushed away her hands. "You can really be annoying at times," he said groggily.

She continued to poke him. "Yeah, but you're still friends with me," she answered. "Huey, I'm bored."

"Why don't you go mess with Caesar?"

She poked him one final time. "But I want to mess with _you_," Jazmine said as she lied down next to Huey. She could see the red tint in his cheeks.

He turned his head to the side to look at her. "Why?" he curiously asked.

She shrugged as she looked up at the ceiling. "Because… I don't know. I like messing with you. You're fun to mess with," she answered with a small smile. She faced him. Their eyes met in the center of the bed. The room was dimly lit, and all Jazmine could see were Huey's maroon eyes looking intensely at her.

"Jazmine… I think that—"

_Yeah, so tell me girl if every time we  
To-o-uch  
You get this kind of ru-u-ush  
Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah  
If you don't wanna take it slow  
And you just wanna take me home  
Baby, say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah  
And let me kiss you_

Jazmine's phone started to go off in the middle of Huey's sentence. He sighed hard as Jazmine turned to look at the bed. She switched back to Huey. "Ignore it," she told him.

When her cell phone started to ring again, he shook his head. "Just go answer whoever it is," he instructed her. "I'll still be right here." She groaned as she got off the futon and grabbed her phone. She walked out of the room and pressed the answer button.

"This better be good," she muttered into the phone.

"_Jazmine! That's is _no_ way to talk to your bestest friend in the entire universe,_" Cindy slurred out. "_You wouldn't talk to your mommy like that, would you? I can't check on my girl without… without getting chewed out?_"

"Well, I'm sorry I was in the middle of something that you, oh so rudely interrupted, so my bad that I'm a little edgy," she responded as she tapped her fingers on the kitchen counter. This was the second time she was cockblocked in a day. That had to be some kind of record.

"_Does this something involve a certain curly haired girl and a nigga with a permanent scowl being in the same bed together?_" Cindy giggled. Jazmine rolled her eyes hard, even though she knew that Cindy couldn't see her. "_I don't hear you denying it, Jazmine._"

Technically, she _was _in bed with him, but it wasn't the way Cindy was thinking about. "Shut up, Cindy," she finally answered. "Nothing happened."

"_Yet,_" she added to the end of Jazmine's sentence.

"And how many drinks have you had?"

"_Jazzy… I'm white girl wasted!_" she yelled to the people in the club. Jazmine could hear the crowd of people cheering in the background. "_I'm going to let you go back to fucking your hubby. Don't forget to be safe and shit!_" she laughed drunkenly. "_Oh, and you better swallow, or you're a basic bitch!_" She thought she was hilarious when she said that.

"Bye, Cindy," she said quickly, hanging up the phone. She walked back to her room and looked over at the futon. He was under the large blanket with his book in his hand. He didn't notice her until she jumped on the couch next to him. "What are you reading?" she asked, moving closer to him to see his book.

"It's um… _The Autobiography of Malcolm X_," he replied, looking down at Jazmine.

"It looks pretty old," she said, glancing at the cover and the back. The pages were worn out and almost every page's corner was crinkled at least once. "How long have you had this?"

"A while," he replied.

She yawned and put her head on his shoulder. He cleared his throat and squirmed a little under her. "You should read to me," she said sleepily. She yawned again. "And you better start from the beginning, too."

"You're tired," he told her. She shook her head as she yawned for the third time in five minutes. "Yeah, you are. Jaz, we should probably both go to sleep." She smirked and lied down on the pillow that was under her. "I meant in our own beds."

She pouted at him. "So you don't me in your bed?" she questioned innocently. His cheeks darkened three shades. He couldn't even get a response out. She screamed internally. Why couldn't he see that she was _trying _so hard with him?

Huey wasn't _that _dense… was he?

He didn't even finish his thought before, and she surely wasn't about to bring it up. Whatever it was, it apparently not important enough, because he would've immediately said what was on his mind. Either that or he was just playing her.

If that was the case, he wasn't doing a very good job at it.

"Fine… I'll get in my own bed," she finally said, getting off of the futon. She walked over to the bed and crawled under the covers. She grabbed the bear on the edge of the bed and snuggled up to it. "The invitation for my bed is still open," she smirked.

"I wish," she heard him say quietly before she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

Jazmine smoothed down her shirt as she stepped out of the steamy bathroom. Her eyes scanned the room until she locked onto the futon. The empty futon. She turned to the door, where she heard faintest conversation. She dragged herself out of bed and walked into kitchen and saw Huey talking to Caesar.

"You _rejected _her?" Caesar yelled at him.

Jazmine dropped to the floor and crawled behind the bar to listen to the conversation. She felt a little guilty that she was eavesdropping on them, but her remorse went away when she heard Huey sigh hard. She really wanted to hear what she had to say.

"Can you be any louder?" Huey retorted back. He paused for a moment, probably to turn around to see where Jazmine was. He lowered his voice. "It's not like I wanted to. She got a call and left the room. That's not my fault!"

"Uh-huh. What happened after that?"

He stopped again. Her fingers quietly drummed on her knees as she anticipated the rest of the discussion. He cleared his throat. "She… um, she got in my bed," he finally let out.

"You dumbass! She was practically throwing herself at you and you didn't do nothing about it? You really are a stupid motherfucker. She's not gonna be waiting on you forever, dude," Caesar said in a lower voice.

"You think that I don't want to just be done with it? Every time I try to make a move, either I bitch out or something happens that prevents from doing it. It's like I'm being cockblocked by the fucking universe!"

Jazmine rolled her eyes. He had plenty of times to say what he had to say. How many years have they known each other? This weekend wasn't the first time he had felt like this; she notices his subtle hints, although he doesn't notice hers.

"What is you doin' under there?" Riley quizzed when he found her hiding. She quickly tried to shoo him away; he was messing up the whole "being inconspicuous" plan. He raised his eyebrow. "Is you spyin' on Huey and them?"

Jazmine pulled him down to face him. "Don't tell them anything," she warningly replied.

He smirked. "Or what?" he dared questioned. She flicked him in the forehead, making him stumble back. "Ow! You fucking—!"

"Riley?" she heard Huey say. She scooted closer to the wall and curled into herself. "What were you doing on the floor?"

Riley looked down at Jazmine, who frantically waved her hands and shook her head no. His focus went back to Huey and Caesar. He shrugged slightly. "Mindin' my own business, that's what," he replied. Jazmine sighed softly, lucky that Riley wasn't going to say anything. "Aye, Huey. Do you like Jazzy?"

_What?_

"What?" Huey said confused, repeating Jazmine's thoughts almost immediately. Jazmine hungrily anticipated the answer, but she could tell he was hesitating. "Why are you asking this stupid question?" he shot back.

She hated that he was avoiding the question. Her heart fluttered uncontrollably as she didn't know what to expect for him. Granted, she knew that was _something_ there, but she didn't know what it was. It could be a spark. It could be an explosion. Either way, the expectation of his response and his stalling made her want to scream.

"I'm just sayin'. If she was like, in this room right now, and you had one chance to tell her everything you ever wanted to… what would you say?" Riley explained to them. Now Jazmine knew that he was doing this on purpose. She had to put in a good word for him with Cindy.

"I would tell her… that she's amazing. Nothing else."

Jazmine grinned to herself. She always heard from other people how many good things he would say about her, but when she actually heard it from his own mouth? She was feeling as if she was on Cloud Nine.

"Aww, that was really cute, Huey," Caesar laughed.

"Shut up," he retorted.

She started to crawl away, trying to be as sneaky as she was before. She smirked on how she actually got away with it.

"What are you doing?" She turned onto her back to see Huey standing over her. She quickly stood up and brushed herself off. She shrugged lightly. "You don't know why you were on the floor, Jaz?" he asked her.

"When's the last time you've done your hair?" he asked, quickly changing the subject. She ran her fingers through his afro. She could see the undertone in his cheeks, but she didn't care; his hair was the softest thing ever.

He tilted his head to the side to remove her fingers. "You can just put your hands in someone's hair!" he said.

"Why not?" Jazmine asked, pulling her hands away from his hair, as if she did something wrong. "I'm sorry if I made you mad…"

"What if I put my hands in your hair without you asking?"

"I don't care," she said. She smiled brightly. "I love it when people play with my hair," she giggled. She twirled a lock of her hair around her finger and turned around to get her suitcase from the floor. She placed it on top of the bed and piled her clothes in it.

Huey sat down next to her suitcase. Jazmine looked over at him and slightly pushed him in his chest. In return, he slapped her hand when she tried to do it again. She got frustrated and tried to push him harder with both of her hands, but he caught her wrists and move them out of the way, causing her body to crash into his, making them both fall onto the bed.

_Oh God. Oh God. Oh God._

Granted, it was kind of clichéd on how it happened, but nevertheless they were on top each other, staring straight into each other's eyes, startled on what just happened. It was a compromising position, yet neither one of them moved.

_Oh my God, he's looking at me. What do I do? Do I have something in my teeth? Did I even_ brush _my teeth? Great, we're gonna kiss and my breath probably smells terrible. Our first real kiss and I have morning breath. Well… second real kiss._

"Jazmine…" he paused. Every time he said her name like this, she always expected him to do something… unexpected. It was like his way of telling her to brace herself because something was about to happen.

She was taking deep breaths. She closed her eyes and inched closer to his lips. It was only a slight connection before she felt a violent vibration on her leg. She blushed even harder.

"It's… my phone," he answered awkwardly. He reached into his pocket and got out his phone. His hand accidentally brushed up against her leg, sending electrical jolts throughout her body. "Yeah?" he said into the speaker.

Jazmine thought she overstayed her welcome on Huey's lap, so she slipped off of him and tried to zip up her suitcase. When she failed, Huey got up and motioned her to sit on the top. She did as she was told and crossed her feet under her. He put his phone on speaker as he helped Jazmine.

The man on the phone seemed to drone on and on, babbling about something Jazmine didn't understand. She looked down at Huey as he focused on the task at hand. He glanced up for a moment at Jazmine. He stopped what he was doing and stood eye level with her. She bit her lip when she looked at him. He placed his hands on either side of her body and leaned in ever so slightly.

"_Mr. Freeman? Mr. Freeman?_" the voice on the speaker said. Huey glanced at his phone before picking it up and taking it off of speaker.

Whoever it was, it was deemed more important than Jazmine was and she was pushed to the side. She ran her fingers through her hair and jumped off the bed. She grabbed her bag and walked out of the bedroom into the living room. As she sat down on the couch between Cindy and Caesar, who are babbling on about what happened this weekend, she made a decision.

She was going to get her moment back with Huey _tonight_, no matter what it takes.


	5. The Climax

_**A/N:** ohmygod, another update! :P yesh, my little followers i have blessed you with a new update... you're welcome. um, first of all, happy spring break to me(: and to all you who're still waiting, it'll come faster than you think! i promise! and Happy New League Year for all my football fans like me! May all your free agents come back to your team, as well as some new ones! (Shut up, Taylor, no one cares about football like you.) Anywho... you totes should give me a review when you're finished. yeah, that little box is hungry and you should fill it with positive words. :P i'm sorry, it's 1 am and i'm tired af, and i have to go play tennis in the morning -_- okay i'll be quiet so you can read this._

_OH OH! **P.S:** shoutout to **Schweetpea1870** because i totes used one of her ideas on this chpater okay, okay i'mreallyleavingnowipromise._

* * *

Chapter Five: The Climax

Much to his surprise, his brother was the first person to arrive to his apartment. He didn't even say hi to his brother, only going straight to the refrigerator in the kitchen. He opened the fridge and frowned, shaking his head. He closed the door and opened it again, looking around once more.

"Hi Riley," Huey said sarcastically.

"Nigga where all the food at?" Riley responded, ignoring the greeting. He slammed the door. "How you gonna have a damn party with niggas and all you got is that gross ass tofu and vegetables and shit? You fucking up, Huey."

Huey rolled his eyes. "First of all, I didn't invite any of you. Caesar decided that you guys were coming over here. Second of all, you need to eat more 'vegetables and shit'. Your insides are probably dirtier than your bedroom."

Riley scoffed and walked to the couch and flopped down. "Yeah, but my clothes are cleaner than yours, though."

The intercom buzzed and he pressed the button without figuring out who the person on the other side was. "Whatever." He unlocked the door and walked towards the couch.

Riley heard the door open and he turned around. "Aye! Don't come in here if you ain't got no food!" he yelled at the door. Caesar sighed and threw a bag of popcorn in his direction. Riley smiled. "Thanks, nigga."

Caesar shook his head and sat the rest of the food on the kitchen bar and put the drinks in the fridge. "What's up, Huey?" he questioned as he sat in the chair near his table. Huey shrugged. "You talk to your baby moms anytime soon? Is she coming over to watch the game?"

Huey glared at his friend. "She's not my baby mama," he answered calmly. He sunk into his seat more. "And she's coming over after she gets off of work, so yeah." Caesar smirked. "What?"

"I bet you're happy she's coming, huh?"

Riley interrupted before Huey could give an answer. "Oh hell yeah he real happy," he said loudly, popcorn still in his mouth. "He gonna be ignorin' the rest of us while he be lookin' over at Jazzy. He always do that shit."

Huey threw a pillow at Riley. "Shut the fuck up! And don't get that shit in my fucking carpet!" he warned his brother.

"Touchy subject, I see," Caesar said sarcastically. He leaned back. "At least did you tell her about Vegas?" he asked. Huey remained quiet, staring at the TV. Caesar shook his head.

Riley snickered. "That's cuz he's a bitch, Ceez," he replied, getting up and going back into the kitchen. Huey glared at his brother as Riley grabbed a beer from the refrigerator. "What? I mean, come on. You know you ain't did nothing about it! You ain't got no game!" he said as he walked back to his seat.

Huey snatched the beer out of Riley's hand before he sat down. "You don't know anything."

Riley sucked his teeth and pointed at him. "See? This is why you can't get with no girl. Yous a hater. You hatin' on niggas who got girls," he said, getting another beer. "This is what you gotta do: go up to her and say 'Jazzy, we fucked… an' I wanna do that shit again.' That's how you get shit done."

Caesar and Huey stared at Riley. "Nigga, you stupid!" Caesar finally said. "That's not the way you handle that situation!" He turned to Huey. "You should sit her down and have a real conversation about it, like responsible adults, not like a kid."

"Pssh, that's how faggots do it," Riley scoffed. "Nah, do what I said to do. That shit worked for me, and it'll work for yo ass. You gotta be a G about that shit."

"A G? I heard you cried when you asked Cindy out because she rejected you at first," Caesar laughed.

Riley whipped his head at Caesar. "Who told you that?" he glared at Huey. "That ain't fucking happen, nigga!"

"Oh really?" Huey smirked. "You didn't say 'Huey, why don't Cindy like me?'" he mocked, using a fake crying voice. Caesar almost fell out of his chair laughing. "'I thought we was cool like that!'"

He gritted his teeth. "Oh, fuck you guys!" he snapped. He jumped and walked towards the door. "You niggas seem to forget I'm the only one here with a girl right now! Huey bein' bitchmade over a girl he _already_ fucked and Caesar… I don't know what the fuck you doin'."

"I'm happy being single, thank you very much," he answered.

"You can't be givin' no advice if you ain't got nobody!"

"But you give shitty advice!"

There was a knock on the door and as Riley and Caesar continued to argue, Huey shook his head and answered the door. Cindy pushed through him to get to her boyfriend. He rolled his eyes. He didn't remember why he was still friends with her.

"Don't look so _mean_," Jazmine smiled as she handed Huey half of the bags that she had in her hands. She walked past him and sat the bags on the table near Caesar. He tried to get into on the bags, but Jazmine smacked his hand. "Hold on!"

Huey kicked the door closed and sat the remaining bags next to Jazmine's. "Why did you get more food?" he asked.

"Caesar told me to," she replied quickly. She skipped over to the kitchen and opened the fridge door. "Caesar! Where are the Snapples I asked for?"

"In the vegetable crisper so no one would touch them."

She grabbed one and the large bag of pita chips from her own bag and sat down in her usual spot. Huey sat down next to her and looked over at her.

"Who's even playing tonight?" she asked as Caesar turned to the station where the basketball game was playing.

"Chicago Bulls vs. Brooklyn Nets," Huey answered, watching the screen. Jazmine looked over at Riley and Caesar, who both anticipating the game. "Yeah, expect an argument out of them around halftime.

* * *

Sure enough...

"It's only halftime, nigga!" Caesar yelled at Riley. Currently at halftime, his home team only had thirty-nine points, compared to the Bulls' fifty-three. Riley took the time to get his trash talking on, which only made Caesar more irritable.

"Fourteen points, though…" he trailed off. He sighed and shook his head. "It's okay, Ceez. You just can't beat us. It's aiight. Just count this one as a loss and move to the next team. Who y'all play next?"

"But we beat the Bulls last time," Caesar replied. "I like how you don't want to remember that shit." He took a swig of his beer.

Riley stood up. "It was by four fucking points!" he responded. "We coulda won that damn game! We just didn't get enough time at the end!"

"Nigga, you had forty-eight minutes!"

Riley sat back down. "Whateva nigga. My niggas gonna take care of yo ass next half, just watch," he smiled. "By the way, who the fuck is even on yo team? Is anybody worth a shit over there? Don't y'all got… Kim K's ex-husband? And even _she_ upgraded to nigga from Chicago. Does that nigga even play?"

"Shut up, Riley. Who the fuck you got besides Derrick Rose?"

Riley smirked. "See that's thing! Derrick ain't even playin'… and we still whoopin' yo ass, nigga! That's what makes this shit better!"

Cindy rolled her eyes. "That's cool an' all, but Miami is better than both of y'all teams," she announced matter-of-factly. "The Heat got a better record than the Bulls or the Nets."

The boys shrugged her off. "Yeah, that's true, but we talkin' about these teams. I mean, obviously Miami gonna be better than us."

Jazmine picked at the frayed strings on her shorts as she leaned her back on Huey's shoulder. He could tell she was bored out of her mind because she wasn't into the conversation and she didn't really care for basketball. "I'm bored!" she whined to everyone. When she was ignored, she pulled her phone out and proceeded to take pictures of herself.

"Is that all you do?" Huey asked her. "Take pictures of yourself?"

She shook her head. "Sometimes I take pictures of you," she smiled. She lifted her phone high above in her to take the next picture.

He smirked. "Yeah, that's not creepy at all." He glanced up to see Caesar mouthing "tell her," while his brother was saying "fuck her." He rolled his eyes and tried to overlook them.

"Hey Jazzy."

Riley's voice made Huey's head snap up. Everyone looked over at Riley, wondering what he would say next, although Caesar and Huey both had an intuition. Riley was getting daggers from Huey, mentally screaming at the younger Freeman that his death would be a slow one if he chose to continue.

The message didn't go through, and Riley opened his mouth once again. "If you so bored, you should go ahead and fuck Huey again. An' I don't know if you know this shit already, but y'all fucked in Vegas. Just thought you should know that."

The room was eerily silent and Huey was .3 seconds away from jumping over the couch to beat up his brother. Jazmine blinked a couple of times before she calmly shrugged. "Yeah, I already know."

"_What?_" the boys all shouted at the same time.

She moved from his shoulder to look at him. "I… I already knew about it," she repeated slower than the first time, as if they didn't hear her right the first time.

"How… what do you mean you already know? Who told you earlier?" he questioned, a twinge of anger showing in his voice. He tried to decipher who the snitch was. His eyes turned towards Caesar. "If it was you, Caesar, I swear to fucking—"

"Nah, it wasn't me!"

Jazmine touched Huey's shoulder to face her. "It wasn't Caesar!" she retorted. She glared at him. "I told you I could handle my liquor, right? I was 100 percent _sober_ that night, so I remember _everything_."

"But wait," Caesar stepped in. "No, I saw you fight someone. You had to have been drinking something." Jazmine shook her head. "So you fought her for no reason?"

"She spilled a drink on my dress! She deserved whatever happened to her," she said with no remorse.

Huey sat in silence, rethinking the whole thing. She had proved him wrong. He thought the whole time he took advantage of her being drunk, when in fact, she took advantage of him. He was confused; he could've sworn he saw her with at least one drink. "And when did you plan on telling me this?" he asked finally.

She scoffed. "Around the same time you planned on telling me! I'm pretty sure if Riley hadn't said anything today, you would've taken that secret to the grave! Because that's what you do when it comes to girls: ignore the problem and it'll just go away!"

"Yo," Caesar said quietly to Riley and Cindy. "I think we should—"

"Get out," Huey said firmly, still staring at Jazmine. The three got up quickly and said their goodbyes before closing the door behind them. "You think that?"

"It's the truth!" Huey rolled his eyes and got up from the couch. "See! Instead of talking about it, you want to avoid the conversation because it's going into territory you aren't familiar with!"

"What do you want from me?" he slightly yelled at her.

"I want the truth!" she screamed back. She chewed on her thumb. "I just want the truth," she finally said after minutes of silence. "I'm not a little girl waiting on you to ask me to the junior high dance. I'm an adult, and I can handle it… but you have to give me something."

She was glaring at him as he tried to say something. He wanted any words to come out of his mouth; he couldn't stand looking at the hurt that flickered in her eyes while he stood in front of her, not saying a damn thing. Nothing he ever read in his entire life could prepare him for the look that she was giving him.

The hurt registered into anger almost immediately that Huey only caught the end of it. She roughly pushed him away from her as she jumped down from his kitchen counter. She was finally walking away from it all.

"You know what? Fuck you, Huey!" she yelled as she stood in front of him. She scoffed and walked towards the door. "I can't believe I wasted my time on you!" He heard the cracking of her voice at the end. Great, as if he didn't feel bad that he completely blew it with her, he had to deal with making her cry too.

"Jazmine, wait! Don't leave!" he said as he ran after her.

She turned around to look at him. "Why? So you could just stare at me again so that I feel like a fucking idiot?" she spat out. Huey winced slightly. The curse words sounded so much harsher when they came from someone who rarely said them at all. She took a deep breath. "You know what I want to hear. I just want the truth from you. That's all."

He just wanted her be here with him, was that so hard to say?

Jazmine yelled loudly, bring him back into reality, where his best friend was pissed. "God! I could fucking murder you!" she snapped. She turned back around and grabbed the doorknob. She only opened the door slightly before Huey slammed it again. She faced him once more, this time closer. "What the fuck do you want?"

"We need to talk," he said calmly as he looked down at her. He needed to be the voice of reason right about now, especially since Jazmine wasn't fulfilling that role at the moment.

"I'm finished talking! I want to go home and forget about everything that happened tonight!" she answered. She shook her head. "I gave you a chance to say what was on your mind and you fucking left me out there by myself! No, fuck talking. I'm done."

"I'm done" was the only thing he didn't want to hear right now. He didn't want to hear that she gave up on him. She really tried her hardest with him and he threw it back in her face. He was starting to get angry, not with Jazmine, but with himself.

"Huey… let go of the fucking door," she said. He stood in place and said nothing. She growled and started to hit him in chest. "You fucker! I fucking hate you! Goddammit, Huey! Get the fuck away from me!" she repeated over and over again, tears silently flowing from her eyes.

He wondered if his neighbors could hear what was happening in his apartment. He was pretty sure someone was going to call the cops soon. "Jazmine!" he finally shouted. "Stop fucking hitting me!"

She stopped her assault, and her crying, for the moment. "Make. Me," she said with a low, even tone. Her piercing emerald eyes stared at Huey until she punched him hard in the shoulder.

Huey swiftly grabbed her wrists and held them over her head before she could get another blow in. She let out a small whimper, not because she was terrified, but she was surprised that he even grabbed her. He never would put his hands on her like that, and it pissed her off even more.

"Get... the fuck... off of me," Jazmine said slowly. She tried to squirm her way from his grip, but to no avail. She struggled until she couldn't waste her strength anymore. She lowered her shoulders and let out a heavy breath, still glaring at Huey. "I hate you so, so much."

"I just want to talk," he repeated again.

She blew one of her curls that landed over her face out of the way. "You can talk all you fucking want! You can talk until your fucking voice goes hoarse! I don't care anymore!"

"Why are you so mad at me?" he questioned.

"Why am I mad? Because we've been doing this for _eleven_ years now, Huey. Every time I think you're gonna finally open up to me, you bitch out and then we're back at square one again! I don't want to stay at square one! I want _progress_. And if you're just going to be doing the same shit you have been for the past however long… then I'm just gonna cut my losses and move on."

It was speech Huey needed to hear. He glanced down at her, and saw that her tears continued down her cheeks. She was completely silent, except for the occasional sniffle that he heard. He felt like the biggest asshole in the world… and he was for good reasons.

"I don't want you to be mad at me," he finally admitted, turning away from her. He released her wrists so she could wipe her face. "And I don't want you to hate me, and I don't want you to move on."

Jazmine glanced down and shrugged. "Well, you had your chance to talk… twice. What's the point of giving you another chance if you're just gonna throw it away?" she scoffed. "Whatever, Huey. I'm leaving." She turned around and walked towards the door. He grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. She glared back at him. "What?"

Her glossy emerald eyes stared at him until he pulled her into his body, kissing her. The intensity of the kiss sent Jazmine's back to the door. Her hands roamed his back, moving from his neck to lower parts. His hands stayed on her right under her cheekbones and he continued to savagely kiss her. She broke away from the kiss and she lifted her arms up, letting Huey take off the hoodie she was wearing. Her fingers moved to his own shirt and she dropped it right next to her discarded clothing. He traveled down to the waistband of her shorts, but she moved his hands away.

"Not here," she moaned, closing her eyes.

Huey looked at her. "Bedroom?" he asked. She pointed in another direction. He raised an eyebrow and blinked. "The kitchen?" he questioned in confusion. She bit her lip and nodded. He smirked and picked her up. "You're the queen."

"And you're the king."

Huey sat her down in the open space next to the sink in his kitchen. He unceremoniously yanked the shorts, along with her panties, off of her body. She wrapped her legs around Huey's waist, enclosing him between her. He quickly snapped the back of the bra and Jazmine threw it to the other side of the kitchen. He resumed kissing Jazmine sloppily on her face and neck as she fumbled with the button of his jeans using one hand.

"Jazmine," he panted. "I don't have a condom." As much as really, _really_ wanted to keep going, there was a good chance that Jazmine could get pregnant if he couldn't pull out on time.

"I'm on the pill," she reassured him.

"Good enough," he finally said. He slid out of his boxers and positioned himself in front of her. He looked up at Jazmine and kissed her before he entered her. She screamed out, and her hand clutched the edge of the counter.

He placed his hands on her hips and pushed in further. She threw her head back and bit her lip. Huey looked at her as he continued to pump quickly inside of her. His lips moved from hers, down to her neck, where he added a fresh hickey.

"Fuck," Huey panted. He was feeling amazing. Not only was there a naked girl in front of him, and not only was he fucking said naked girl in his kitchen, the girl happened to be Jazmine, and she happened to be screaming his name. All in all, this was better ending to the day than he thought, which originally included his computer and an extremely cold shower.

He felt her tighten up around him and he smirked. He loved that he could hear the echoes that bounced on the walls. He loved the way his name sounded in her mouth. And he loved the way he knew she was about to climax.

"Shit! Huey!" she shouted as she collapsed forward. Huey grabbed her thighs and finished her off by going slow before he finally came inside of her. He rested his hands on each side of her as he steadied his breath. She lied her head on his shoulder. He could faintly hear her heartbeat. "You're good," she said quietly, almost in a whisper.

"You're better, though," he corrected. He left a trail light fluttery kisses going down her neck, shoulder and arm. "You're staying here tonight in my bed, right?" Although he formed it as a question, it was more like a command. He wasn't going to let her go anytime soon.

She nodded slowly. "I'm holding on to you forever," she whispered again, a smirk on her lips. "Why? Does somebody want me to stay here for a while?"

He picked her up and led her to his room. "Maybe…"

She buried deeper in his neck. "Liar…" she said before she drifted off into sleep. He placed her on the other side of the bed that he didn't sleep on and talk to her under the blanket. He got in on the other side and she gravitated towards his warm body. He wrapped his arms around her waist and soon enough, he was right behind her, falling asleep.


	6. The Question

_**A/N:** Okay okay, so this isn't one of my chapters, so I won't spend forever talking up here... (that'll be on the next chapter.) So, this is my friend's Vospader21's chapter he made for my story. He asked me if he could write a little something for me, and being the nice person that I am, I gave him a shot. He's a sweet kid and you guys should totally give him reviews to help him out :)_

* * *

Chapter Six: The Question

Ray's of sunlight leaked through the blinds of Huey's room, allowing a soft morning glow to permeate throughout, creating a peaceful atmosphere that was nurturing for the two new lovers resting peacefully under the coarse cotton sheets. They both lay on their side completely nude and intertwined in each other's embrace. Jazmines head rests on Huey's strong hard chest, while Huey's face is buried in Jazmine's poofy strawberry blonde hair. He breathes a little, and then his eyes flutter open a bit. He pulls his face out of Jazmine's hair and takes a moment to contemplate what happened.

_"Ok Freeman, let's get this straight. Last night you just fucked the girl of your dreams on the kitchen counter. She's in your arms right now, and there's no where you'd rather be. You love her, and she loves you. So now what? Is she my girlfriend now or what?"_ He ran a hand over her smooth light skin, experiencing erotic sensation as he caressed the silky curves of her hips, rear, and thighs. In her sleep she made light moans as Huey touched her. Huey's fingers finally reached in between her thighs and slowly crept up to her most sensitive place. _"I'll define our relationship later, but right now I have a sexy-cute little mulatto girl naked in bed with me."_ His fingers crept up more and more, then suddenly his alarm clock struck 7 am, and the music started playing.

"I am the stone that the builder refused. I am the visual. The inspiration, that made ladies sing the blues. I'm the spark that makes your idea bright, the same spark that lights the dark so that you can know your left from your right. I am the ballot in your box. The bullet in your gun. The inner glow that lets you know to call your brother son. The story that just begun. The promise of what's to come And I'm 'a remain a soldier till the war is won, won, w_on…"_ Huey reached over to his nightstand and turned off the alarm clock. "Fuck," he sighed.

He reluctantly pulled himself away from Jazmine, and got out of bed. He opened the shades and the sunlight filled the room in full force. He stood in front of the window and let the bright rays warm his naked body. He watched the city, observed its chaotic yet formulaic clockwork. The people, the cars, the birds, and the dogs, all seemed to be going in random directions, yet all flowed within their own lanes in tandem as though they where each in streams that fed into a giant river. _"Just yesterday I would have easily been able to criticize every single iota of this city for one reason or another, but today, today it's like I'm seeing the sun shine for the very first time."_ The sun shone yellow with just the slight orange tinges of its dawn time color, its rays extending to illuminate the strength and steel of the Baltimore skyscrapers. He looked at this landscape and saw hope, a sort of strength one can have from seeing a bright glimpse of the future. _"What the hell man?! Just yesterday you saw this setup and went into a whole fucking tirade about, how capitalism has created socio-economic conformity in all things including architecture, and has murdered any form of artistic expression the architecture profession once had."_

"It's beautiful," said a sweet innocent voice. Huey turned around; Jazmine was standing behind him nude as Eve in the garden, and a thousand times more beautiful. He motioned for her to come to him, and she did. He put his arm over her and held her close. She put a hand on his chest and leaned her head on his shoulder and looked up forming a connection between her deep green eyes, and his dark maroon. _"I love you, you're unlike any girl in this world, and I want you to be mine forever. Damnit why is that so hard to say?"_ He kissed her on the forehead, and then let her go. "I have to get ready for work."

He began to walk towards his closet, when Jazmine grabbed his wrist, he turned back to face her, and was taken by surprise when she swiftly wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips with a fervent passion that only existed between soul mates. When she let go their hearts where racing, her perfectly shaped light caramel breasts swelled up and down with each breath she took, and thin drops of sweat trickled down her nipples and trim belly, as an aura of passion exuded between the two of them. "I love you too." She said.

"Fuck it, I'll call in sick." He grabbed her rear, and lifted her up, she wrapped her legs around his waist, and put her breasts in his face. He gave each of them a lick and a kiss suckling on each teat in the rhythm of a newborn, while his hands massaged her ass. He laid her down on the bed. He moved down from her breasts to her stomach planting a kiss every few inches. He stopped at her naval, kissed it and gave it a little lick, "eeeih, haha" she yelped and laughed in that sweet naïve squeal of hers. He spread her thighs and got a look at his target, her entrance was throbbing, it yearned for attention, and he knew just how to give it. He kissed her inner thigh, nibbled a little on its sumptuous light caramel flesh, and at a torturously slow pace licked his way up to the point where her leg met her pelvis; a little line of flesh that acted as the border between her legs and the sweet fruit between them. At this part he licked and lightly chewed the delicate the flesh, causing her to buck her hips and arch her back in strong reaction. "Stop teasing me you jerk."

He put on a sardonic grin, and finally moved his mouth to her entrance. He circled the outer lips of her nether region with his tongue, then flicked her clitoris up and down, followed by sucking on it hard and nibbling it light. He pulled his head back and gently blew on her maidenhead, causing her to squirm almost violently, "Huey please," she whimpered. He wasn't done yet, he stuck his tongue in her soaked caverns and drank and ate from it like he was buried underground for three days. It was the most delightful taste he'd ever known, so sweet so pure, just like her. His tongue explored every inch of her fleshy cavern, while his thumb fondled her clitoris, mashing it like a button, and swirling it like a joystick. Jazmine was going crazy, "Huey, I, I, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Her orgasm rocked her entire body, Huey moved back as her hips spasmed and was showered in an explosive geyser of her cum, catching as much of her sweet nectar in his mouth as he could.

Huey moved back up to her, face sleek from Jazmines juices. He smelled so sweet, like sugar, with a hint of salt. He kissed her lips deep and hard, she slipped her tongue into his mouth, and tasted her own essence within it. When they parted for air they were both panting and drenched in sweat. "What do you want?" Huey asked.

"I want you." She said.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked

"Fuck me, fuck me harder than you've ever fucked me before."

Huey positioned his cock at her entrance, and slid right in. He took just a moment to feel the wonderful grip of her walls on his dick. Then began his thrusting. Jazmine wrapped her legs around his waist, keeping him from pulling out too far and aiding his rhythm. "Oooh, ah, ah, ah, Huey! I love you so much. Ah, ah, ah, ahhhhhhhhh!" She grabbed him by the afro and smashed his lips into hers, her pelvis bucking back to meet his thrusts as her next orgasm hit.

The contractions of her pussy as she furiously came were driving Huey insane, her walls clasped and released his dick so furiously it put him in complete sensory overload. His only instinct was keep bucking harder, and harder, his hips slamming into her pelvis, balls smacking against her ass with each thrust. Just going faster, and faster, and faster. "Oh god, nooo, Huey I'm gonna cum again, I'M GOING TO FUCKING CUM AGAIN! FUUUUCCCKKKK!" The pressure was just too much and Huey seed shot loose, he could feel the muscles of his urethra spasm, shooting his cum out like cannon fire into Jazmine's womb.

Jazmine relaxed her legs around Huey's waist, Huey pulled out and collapsed next to her. She looked him in the eyes, "Huey, say it please."

"Say what?" He asked.

"What you couldn't say before when you were holding me, I could see it in your eyes Huey, just say it for me please."

"Jazmine I..."

"I am the stone that the builder refused. I am the visual. The inspiration that made the ladies sing the blues…"

"Shit, snooze alarm." Huey grumbled. He looked at Jazmine, her curvaceous light skinned body was covered in a sweet sheet of sweat, her breasts heaved up and down as a result if her still racing heart, her deep green eyes that framed the open portal into her innocent soul. The one thing he wanted right now more than ever was to hold her and never let go.

"...the spark that makes your idea bright, the same spark that lights up the dark so you can tell your left from your right." The alarm still hadn't been turned off. Huey reached for it and flipped the switch turning it off for real this time.

He sighed, he pulled Jazmine into his arms, and guided her lips to his, one hand held her head for support, while his other hand hugged her body for affection. She in turn wrapped her arms around him, wanting nothing more than to keep him there forever. As soon as their lips parted, he placed another kiss on her forehead, after which he buried his face in the crook of her neck. At this moment they where the epitome of love itself. He knew it, she knew it, but more than anything he wanted to say it. He wanted to tell her that she meant everything to him. "I have to go to work now." He said.

And he pulled himself away from her, an action that caused him a level of pain that he wouldn't dare begin to ponder. He rifled through his drawers to find something to wear. Jazmine looked on with a small degree of hurt in her eyes. "Um, I'll go make you breakfast." She said.

"You don't have to do that." He responded, but she was already gone.


	7. The Secrets

_**A/N:** Hellooo, my fellow readers! No, you are not dreaming, I am finally updating my story! Before you get out the pitchforks and stuff, just think about this... do you know how hard your junior year is? No sympathy guys? Well, anyways, really sorry about the lateness of this, but at least I'm getting this out as fast as possible! I promise that I'll try harder to get out a chapter quicker, alrighty guys? Don't kill me! and remember, reviews are love!_

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Chapter Seven: The Secrets

Huey straightened his tie and put on his jacket. He ran his pick through his hair a couple times before walking towards the kitchen. She was standing over the stove, and the smell of eggs and veggie sausage wafted through the room. His stomach groaned at the thought of nourishment.

Her loose hoodie barely covered anything, leaving few things to Huey's imagination, although he could still think of some things. She noticed him out of the corner of her eye and smiled at him. "Morning!"

"Morning," he replied.

"I know you said I didn't need to make breakfast…" she started, putting the steaming food on a plate. "But… I wanted to anyways, so you're welcome." She slid the plate to the bar, along with a mug of coffee. He looked up at her. She jumped up onto the island in the middle of the kitchen. "Eat, Huey! Before you have to go!"

He shook his head. "Jazz, we got to—"

"Eat," she commanded. He blinked, but stopped his protest, because his stomach grumbled for a second time. He picked up his fork and dug into his eggs, savoring every bite. It was better than his eggs, Riley's eggs, and even Granddad's eggs. Combined.

Damn, the girl could cook.

"Good, right? Even I think I outdid myself," she joked, sipping from a cup of orange juice. Huey nodded quickly, deeply consumed in the plate of food in front of him. She lowered herself back onto the tile floor. "Well, I'll see you later then."

His head snapped up. "Where are you going?" he asked with his mouth full of food.

"Uhh… to my apartment?" she answered as if it was common knowledge. She slipped into her shorts and grabbed her phone, putting it in her front pocket. "I don't know if you know this, but it's freaking early. I'm going back to sleep."

He stood up and walked over to her by the door. "Right," he said. "So I'll see you later, right?" he asked. "I mean, we can hang out later or something… if you want."

Jazmine blushed slightly and smiled. "Sure." She stood on her the tips of her toes and gave him a small kiss on his cheek.

_Don't make this awkward. Don't make this awkward. Don't make this awkward._

But before his inner voice could connect with his mouth, it was already too late. "And uh, thanks… for the sex." As soon as he said it, he immediately regretted it. He winced at his own stupidity.

"Right," she said. "You're welcome, I guess." And with an awkward essence lingering in the air between them, she made her short walk of shame up the stairs to her apartment.

He smacked his forehead before he grabbed his briefcase and headed out the door. "Thanks for the sex? Really?" he muttered to himself. He needed to start listening to his conscience more often.

_You goddamn right you need to listen to me more!_

He should've been happy, not only did he hook up with Jazmine; he hooked up with her _twice_ within twelve hours. Granted, he was pretty content, maybe better than just content because he had to be honest, the sex was _good_.

He didn't know what to say to her though. Romance wasn't a strong point of his, and all the advice he ever gotten came from either Caesar, who was single, his granddad, who had one failed relationship after another, or Riley, who was in a relationship, was just plain dumb sometimes. So, the rules of having a girlfriend were sketchy to him.

Huey stopped in his tracks. Was Jazmine his girlfriend? There was no official talk about it, and he was pretty sure blowing her off when she wanted an answer back didn't help his case, although if you have sex with someone three times, you aren't "just friends" anymore.

He tried driving to work without thinking about her, only keeping his mind occupied with things he needed to do when he got to the office. That was one thing he could rely on: work to keep his mind from wandering. He was going to focus on everything he had to get done today, and after Jazmine got off of work, they would have a real conversation about what needed to be said, and this time it won't be one-sided. Yeah, this plan was going to work.

* * *

At twelve o'clock, Huey had his earphones in, shutting himself off from everybody, and was printing out a simple lawsuit for his boss. It had been a productive four hours, and no thoughts of a certain curly-haired female popped into his head. He was making great progress, and by this rate, he could be able to leave an hour early.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. He secretly hoped it was Jazmine; just so maybe he can explain himself better than he did this morning. But instead it was Caesar, asking if they could go to lunch. Slightly disappointed, he answered with a simple "yes" and walked down the hall to the executive wing.

"Andrea," he said, arriving at the secretary's desk in front of his boss's office. She looked up and smiled, blinking her hazel eyes. "I'm going to lunch, so tell Mr. Lewis that I'll be gone for about an hour."

She glanced down at her papers. "Did you type up that lawsuit? Because he needs that by 12:15," she told him. He dropped the manila envelope on the counter. "Wow, Huey. You're like, a really great worker."

"Right…" he replied. "Make sure you tell him, Andrea," he reminded her before he turned around and walked away to get on the elevator. Eleven floors later, he could see Caesar flirting with a girl downstairs.

"You know the football team Baltimore Ravens? Yeah, I'm their athletic trainer," he nonchalantly told her, spitting his Brooklyn game at her. "I mean, it ain't a big deal. They're just regular people like me and you, except they have a Super Bowl ring."

"So like, you were New Orleans when they won?"

Caesar shrugged. "It was no big deal. We were all excited and stuff, but we gotta get back to there this year, k'naamean? We gotta get to the Super Bowl in Jersey, y'know?" The girl nodded intensely. "I bet you I could hook you up with some tickets; you just gotta give me your number."

And then he flashed his million-dollar smile to seal the deal.

"Um, okay!" she answered, programming her number into his phone. Huey shook his head. He couldn't believe the girl could be so dense. "And if you see Ray Rice, can you give him my number too?"

"Anything for you, babe." As she walked towards the elevator, Caesar could do nothing but laugh. Huey clapped his hands slowly. "That's how you do it man," Caesar instructed Huey. "You need to give them some of the charm—"

"You mean feed them bullshit like you?"

Caesar smirked as they headed onto the sidewalk. "If that's how you see it," he retorted. "I call it banking on a major milestone of Baltimore, such as us winning the Super Bowl. Girls eat that shit up! We better win next year too, but I wouldn't bet on it." Huey scoffed lightly. "So what's up with you? You got pretty into it with your baby mama."

Huey was silent and scratched the back of his neck. "It didn't… necessary end that way," he finally answered. As they continued down the block to where their favorite pizza place was, he tried to think of a better response than that. Caesar was trying to figure it out as well.

"What do you mean? Like, y'all ain't cool no more?" he said, trying to understand.

"No, we had sex," he answered, adding a shrug when he opened the door to the restaurant. Caesar stood at the entrance, completely in shocked by what Huey lackadaisically declared. "Ceez? Are you going to come inside, or are you going to stand out there forever?"

"Now, how the hell you gonna casually mention you had sex with Jazzy?" he retorted, outraged at Huey. "That's something you should be like, goddamn happy about!"

He sat down in the booth, and threw his head back. "She asked me to tell her how I felt about her, as in if I loved her or not, and I told her I had to go to work."

"Oh," Caesar remarked. He reprocessed the scene and thought about it until it finally clicked in his head. "_Oh._"

He lifted his head again. "And it was like she didn't even care that I avoided her question. I mean, she cooked me breakfast, talked to me, y'know? Regular Jazmine fashion. It was as if whatever happened that night and morning didn't even happen."

"Maybe… maybe she's okay with it and is gonna let it go."

Huey rolled his eyes. "You and I both know Jazmine Dubois all too well to know that she doesn't just let anything go. She'll keep thinking about it and then she'll bring it up when she gets mad at you."

Caesar nodded. "Yeah you right," he agreed. "Don't worry about it, son. You probably just making a big deal out of nothing," he added before getting up to go into the ordering line.

Huey twirled his phone in his hand for a few seconds before he unlocked it. He scrolled to Jazmine's name and his index finger hovered over her contact. He gently pressed the text button. He just wanted to innocently send her a message; what was the worst that could happen?

_**Huey:**__ We should talk about what we're doing when you get off of work._

He read over his text probably twenty times, making sure he got his point across. When he was content with his message, he finally sent it.

And then he sent another.

_**Huey:**__ I mean if you aren't tired, you can come over._

And another.

_**Huey:**__ Because if you're tired, we can just talk in the morning or whatever time is convenient for you._

Now, he was content with his messages and with what he said, he finally sat his phone back down. He sighed and looked down at the screen, as if she would respond in two seconds.

"You did not text her three times in a row."

Caesar sat down, putting the tray in front of them and grabbed his slice. "Huey, I thought you had more sense than that," he added, taking a huge bite of his pizza. "You supposed to act better than us regular niggas who get hung up on a girl."

"Shut up." He took his own slice off the tray. He chewed and contemplated, chewed and contemplated. Now the more that he thought about it, he did feel kind of stupid texting her three times. Fuck, was he going to do this often? Because he didn't like this feeling of being dependent on her.

His phone vibrated two quick times, and before Huey could react, Caesar snatched it from the booth's table. "What the hell, Caesar? Gimme my damn phone back!"

"I'll give it back when I'm finished!" Caesar replied. Huey glared at him, as Caesar looked at the message that Jazmine sent. He laughed to himself, which made Huey angrier. He typed up a reply quickly to Jazmine, and then slid the phone back to Huey. "There you go."

Huey gritted his teeth together. "What did you say?" he asked his friend. Caesar shrugged. He went through his messages, trying to find the conversation with Jazmine.

"That's right, I deleted the conversation. And don't think about asking her what I told her, because I told her not to tell you."

Huey shook his head. "Does anyone ever told you really do suck?" he questioned.

"No, but people tell me that I'm the best person ever," he replied with a smirk. He took another bite of his pizza. "Come on, you know I'm only doing this for your own good, right Huey? I mean, this is some tough love right here." Huey grunted. "I don't want you guys to break up and our whole group is gonna have to choose sides and it's gonna be hella awkward."

"It is that why you did it?"

Caesar shook his head. "No, I did it because you are an awkward fucking person and I told her what you want to say but you can't say it front of her," he finally told him. "I know, I know, you can thank me later, maybe in your wedding vows or when you tell your kid on how y'all got together."

"Yeah, I'm not thanking you for shit, but nice try though."

* * *

Huey was probably the lightest sleeper in history.

That's why when he heard the faintest knock on his front door, he immediately woke up and sat up in his bed. He first looked at the alarm clock on his nightstand for the time. 1:15 AM. He was skeptical on who was at his door, because his intercom did not buzz. He lightly placed a socked foot on his hardwood floors and grabbed his protection from behind his bedroom door.

"Who the fuck is at my door?" He asked himself, gripping his katana tightly, in case he had to cut a nigga up quickly. He walked slowly, to see if he could hear the person on the other side of the door. When he couldn't, he looked into the peephole. He blew out a sigh of relief when he found out it was only Jazmine. Setting the katana down, he opened the door.

"Is this a bad time?" she inquired she saw Huey. He yawned loudly and shook his head no. "Oh my God, I woke you up! I just definitely woke you up right now because it's one o'clock in the morning. I'm just gonna go home now."

Huey sobered up quickly. He stood up straight and looked at Jazmine. "No, you don't have to leave. I'm awake at one am, okay? If I wanted you to leave, I would've already closed the door on you." He moved out of the way to let Jazmine into his apartment.

She walked inside and sat down in one of the bar stools on front of the kitchen. "Can you give me something to drink, Mr. Host?" she asked, playing with her nails. "Preferably not water?"

Huey closed the door and moved towards the refrigerator. He glanced inside until he found a Smirinoff Ice from the last party they had at his house. He shrugged and almost gave it to Jazmine, but then jerked his hand away. "You're not going to get super drunk and fight someone, are you?" he smirked.

"Oh, haha," she replied, yanking the drink out of his hand. She popped the top off. "First of all, when I get truly drunk, I just want to talk a lot and then I sleep." She took a tiny sip of the alcohol. "Why do you have so many of those?"

Huey got out a cold bottle of water out of the fridge for himself. "Caesar always leaves those stupid things in my fridge and you know that I don't drink them, so they stay in there forever." Jazmine glared at the bottle as if it was suddenly toxic. "Don't worry; I throw them out if they're expired, so you're good."

"Well, I'm gonna come over every day and drink them all for you, so you're welcome," she compromised. She finished the bottle and Huey got her another. "Are you just feeding me drinks so you can take advantage of me? Just because I'm tiny, doesn't mean I can't bite you!" she smiled.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want that to happen." He put his elbows down on the counter and rubbed his already sleepy eyes. He looked over at Jazmine and sighed. "Jazmine." Her glossy emerald eyes met with his. "We're going to have to talk about this situation eventually."

Halfway into her next bottle, Jazmine was already letting the alcohol got straight to her head. She shook her head violently. "Nooo, let's _not _talk about it. Let's go on with this. This is nice."

"And what _is _this?"

She blinked her eyes a couple of times. "This is… um… you know, I don't really know!" she giggled. He immediately started to rethink about giving her that second drink so quickly. "Because on one hand, I really like us hanging out together, and I like sleeping in your bed because it's more comfortable than my bed, and the sex is just a plus… but on the other hand, you can't say 'I love you' to me even though Caesar told me you tell him that all the time, so…"

Wait, what?

"I never told Caesar that I loved you," he corrected her. He straightened up and looked at her. What has Caesar been telling her? "I mean, I told him other things about my feelings toward you, but I never said or told him that I loved you. I never saidspecifically_ that_. "

Jazmine pouted slightly. "Well, I just thought that maybe you couldn't tell me because you are scared on how I'd react… but really, you just can't say it at all!"

"Jazmine, you know why I can't say it."

She looked down and then looked back up. "What if you just—"

"Look, can we just drop the conversation?" he finally snapped, walking towards the living room. "Don't worry about why I don't want to say it, just know that I don't want to say it, alright? So just drop it and forget about it." He hated when people pushed him to keep talking about something he wasn't comfortable continuing with, especially when it dealt with his feelings.

Jazmine pouted deeper. "You're mad at me!" she yelled, the tears in her eyes.

"I'm not mad at you!"

"Yes you are!" She replied as she rubbed her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears. "You are mad because you're yelling at me!" Huey tilted his head back and groaned. He had to deal with an overgrown child. "See! You're frustrated with me, and I didn't even do anything!"

Now he knew that he shouldn't have given her that second drink. She was crying uncontrollably, with her head down on the bar, and Huey didn't know what to do. She wasn't necessarily a drunken mess, but she wasn't exactly sober either.

He rolled his eyes and swallowed his pride. "Jazmine," he started, walking towards her. He gently rubbed her back. "I'm not mad at you. I promise."

Her head popped up. "Really?" She sniffled. He shook his head no. She smiled and put her head on his shoulder. He realized that as soon as Jazmine gets drunk, she turns into her 10-year-old self. He made a mental reminder not to liquor her up too much, because her 10-year-old self was pretty annoying. "I don't think I can say it either."

"Why?"

"I don't want to be like my dad."

Her dad was a touchy subject for her, as much as Huey's parents were for him. Although he didn't know the full story, he just knew that she hated the hell out of him, and whenever he joked around and called her Tom when she acted high-class, she got a little more pissed than usual.

"Why?" She lifted her head up and looked into Huey's eyes, trying to decipher if he was worthy enough of her secret. Her glossy eyes tried to find something wrong with him. "You can tell me."

She laid her head back down. "My dad's a liar. He doesn't love my mother; he never did," she announced. She started playing with the end of her curls, a nervous quip she had for forever. "He just tells her that so she can stay at home and be the perfect wife. Meanwhile, he's out doing only God fucking knows what late at night."

This was a secret she probably never told anyone, not even Cindy. In a way, he felt honored that she was only telling him, but he also felt bad, since she was kind of drunk.

"And he doesn't think I know. He doesn't understand why I hate him so much. He doesn't understand why the most important guy in my life for more than two decades stunted me forever in my future relationships."

Then he kind of just blurted it out. "I don't want to end up like my dad. And I don't even know who he fucking is."

She looked up at him. "I'm sorry."

He cleared his throat, which meant he didn't want to talk about it anymore. He already said more than he wanted to, but he felt that the time was right for him to tell somebody.

"Stay tonight," he finally said, breaking the silence that was in the room. "No sex, no nothing. Just… stay here."

It probably came out needier than he thought, but Jazmine didn't care. She nodded her head, and with her fingers interlocked with his, she followed him into the bedroom. And with that decision, it forever sealed their relationship.


	8. The Daddy Issues

_**A/N: YES YES I AM SO VERY SORRY! I know, I was supposed to be on my A game during the summer and it's July and this is my first update in like, two million years. ( ._.) I would tell you why I'm late, but I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear anymore of my bs. To make up for my negilgence to my readers, I'm going to try to get you a new story I'm thinking of. AND I WILL GET IT OUT BY NEXT WEEK. I PROMISE. Once again, so so sorry! Read&Review, por favor? :3**_

* * *

Chapter Eight: The Daddy Issues

"_Hey, are y'all the interns?"_

_Huey and Jazmine glared at him, seeing that he had a huge stack of files in his arms. They had just finished clearing the file room of all the files and boxes, which took them two-thirds of the day. If this guy came in with his papers, they would have stay longer than they wanted to. _

"_Yeah, you are. Hey!" he yelled at somebody in the hallway. "Interns are in here. Just drop them off on the desk."_

_Then, five other people, all with the same amount of files, came in and placed the piles in front of the two teenagers. Jazmine sucked her teeth and fell back in her chair. Huey muttered something under his breath that Jazmine couldn't hear, but she was pretty sure there were curse words in his sentence. _

"_What time are you gonna be here tomorrow? I need to know when I'm gonna get my coffee in the morning."_

_Huey scoffed. "I don't know, but here's an idea; how about you write down what you want, then you go down to a coffee shop of your choice, and then you can get it your own fu—ow Jazmine!"_

_Jazmine sent her foot into Huey's shin before he could even finish his sentence. She looked at the lawyer. "You can leave now." Huey glared at Jazmine as he rubbed his leg. "What?" she innocently asked. _

"_Don't 'what' me, you kicked me in my shin!" he snapped._

_Jazmine rolled her eyes. "Huey, if you tell him off, then he'll tell my dad and then my dad will give me this huge lecture on how many strings he had to pull for us to be here working," she explained. "No offense, but I want to spare myself."_

"_So you decide to kick me?"_

_She pouted slightly. "I'm sorry."_

"_You know, when you said we can intern here, I thought we'd be doing actual work for the lawyers here… not filing and going on fucking coffee runs," Huey said, leaning into the chair._

"_Hey, I was given false information!" Jazmine protested. "I told you what he told me when we signed up. You can't blame me."_

_She stared at the giant mountain of manila folders in front of her. There had to been at least 200 different files in her stack alone, all waiting to be put away in its rightful place. She looked over at Huey and sighed._

"_There's no way we could even make a dent in this pile by six." She threw her hands in the air. "And two hundred more is gonna be added in the morning. Does my dad hate us? Because I'm pretty sure this is torture."_

"_Filing isn't torture, Jazmine."_

_She used all her strength to push her stack next to his. "Then I guess you can do mine for me?" she asked, batting her eyelashes. He rolled his eyes. "Well, it was worth a shot," she muttered to herself._

_Huey looked down at his watch. "It's getting late. You think your dad will let us go now?"_

_She shrugged. "I can go ask." She got up from her seat and walked out of the file room. She continued down the familiar hallway until she reached her dad's office, the door slightly ajar. _

_A giggle came from the room. "_Stop_…" someone cooed. _

_Jazmine blinked her eyes. Who was that? It sure as hell didn't come from her father's mouth, and the voice was too high for it to be her mom's. She didn't want to be nosy and intrude on them, but her curiosity got the best of her. _

_She immediately wished she hadn't, because she didn't need to see this scene. She saw her dad sitting at his desk, as usual, but his secretary, Danielle was there too, sitting on the top of the desk in front of Tom._

"_I'm not doing anything," Tom answered, which was obviously a lie since he was touching Danielle's leg in an extremely inappropriate way and cheating on his wife. _

_Danielle giggled again before sliding into Tom's lap. "What if Jazmine comes in here? Or her little friend?"_

_Tom shushed her. "Jazmine's distracted with Huey," he replied simply. Jazmine was confused. She didn't know what her father was implying when he said "distracted", but it pissed her off anyways. _

"_What about Sarah?" _

_Jazmine hoped that her dad would see the error of his ways when that came out of Danielle's mouth. She prayed that her father would come to his senses and end whatever this was before it got too far. She pleaded that he didn't want to continue this and forever lose the respect of his daughter._

"_Sarah who?"_

_She felt her heart break instantly, replaced with a coldness that would burden her. She walked away from the scene with a heavy soul. She was mostly disgusted with Tom, so much that she didn't feel that he didn't deserve his "father" title anymore. _

"_Jaz!" Huey yelled out from the end of the hallway, snapping her out her thoughts. "You were gone for a long time. What did Tom say?" he questioned. _

Well, he's pretty busy fucking his secretary, so I didn't get to ask him.

"_Umm, he said it was okay," she lied. She stared down at the floor the entire time, knowing that if she actually looked at Huey, she'd probably tell everything. "I'm going with my dad," she told him. _

"_Alright," he replied. He grabbed his coat from the file room and looked at Jazmine, who was looking down at her nails. "Hey. You okay? You seem out of it."_

_She flashed a fake smile. "I'm fine, Huey. Go home," she tried to playfully add. She watched him go to the parking garage before she finally called out to him. "Wait!" She yelled out to him, grabbing her coat. He turned around immediately. "Actually, I change my mind. Can you take me home?"_

_The car ride was quiet, with only the sound of Huey's CD playing in the background. Usually, Jazmine would ask about the person who was rapping, but she was too preoccupied with other matters to question. Her thoughts and questions swirled around in one huge jumble. She didn't know how to describe it. I mean, how can she trust her dad after this? He was the one who told her all about the morals and manners of life, but he was the one to screw up their family._

"_Are you going to answer that?" Huey asked after her phone rang for the fourth time in a row. She didn't even notice the vibrations in her lap. She looked down at the name and then immediately back up, shaking her head. "Tom is going to be pretty mad."_

_Jazmine shrugged her shoulders. "Fuck my dad," she commented, putting her phone in her pocket after turning off the ringer. She scoffed. "I mean, he likes to make sure that I'm innocent and perfect and stuff, but he's the worst person."_

_Huey stopped the car in front of Jazmine's house. "Look, in a paranoid way, your dad is trying to protect you. Of course, it doesn't even matter, since I'm your best friend, but… all technicalities aside, he's trying his best. Cut him some slack."_

_Jazmine sniffed. "Yeah, well, you don't really know the whole story so your advice doesn't really work. He did something that I don't think that I'll ever forgive him for."_

"_Whatever he did, he's still your dad. You can hold a grudge for as long as you want to, but that doesn't change the fact that he's your father."_

_Jazmine smiled a little. "Why do you always know what to say to make me feel better?"_

"_After years of knowing what makes you cry, I kind of know what makes you smile, too," he smirked._

_Her smile got a little bigger. "See? This is why kept you around: to make me happy," she laughed. She planted a kiss on his cheek before opening her door. "Thanks, Huey," she added before she jumped out of the car._

_She walked up to the front of her house. Although he tried his best, Huey didn't make Jazmine feel any better didn't she did when she first caught Tom. He was still her father, but he was also a liar and a cheater. How long had this been going on before someone caught them? Danielle started interning there around the same time Jazmine and Huey did, about six months ago. Jazmine was disgusted; Danielle was 20 years Tom's Junior. Huey was wrong, her dad didn't deserve any slack._

* * *

Jazmine woke up from her sleep earlier than usual. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes a couple times before she sat up in the bed. She stretched up and looked over to her right. Just as she thought, he was already starting his day. She threw her legs over the side of the bed to finally pull herself out.

"You finally woke up," Huey remarked as Jazmine groggily went into the kitchen. He looked up from his paper for only a second to see the glare he was getting. "I thought I was going to have to pull you out of bed."

Jazmine scratched the back of her head. "I don't get breakfast?" she asked. He turned a page of his newspaper. "I make you breakfast all the time and I don't get any in return?" she pouted.

"I don't ask for breakfast."

Jazmine rolled her eyes. "Well, you also don't ask me to—"

Huey threw up his hands immediately. "Alright, alright, alright!" he interrupted her, causing Jazmine to smile. "Breakfast makes Jazmine happy. Got it."

She grabbed an apple from the fruit basket on the counter. "Yes. Yes it does," she answered, taking a bite out of the apple. She jumped on the couch next to Huey, leaning into his arm. He then instinctively wrapped his arm will around her. The sense of tranquility and domestic-ness warmed Jazmine. She never wanted to leave the spot.

And then the phone rang.

"Not me," Huey said, turning another page of the newspaper.

Jazmine dug in the back pocket of her shorts to find her phone. She swiftly turned around to see that the phone fell onto the carpet. She pressed the call button without seeing the name on the ID. "Hello?" Jazmine questioned skeptically.

"_No, no, no! The hydrangeas arrangements go on the tables of the biggest donors!_" she heard her mother yell at someone. "_Hello? Jazmine? Are you there?_"

Jazmine pulled the phone away from her ear for a second. "Yeah, you do realize you don't have to be yelling straight into the mouthpiece, right?" she reminded her mom.

"_Oh honey, I'm just making sure everything is going to be perfect for the donors' picnic,_" she answered. "_Jazmine, you are coming, aren't you? Your father would just _love_ to see you again._

Yeah, because the way that she screamed at him, threatening to expose his secrets and potentially ruin his campaign to be the district attorney for Woodcrest, her father was probably dying to reunite with her.

"I don't know… I mean, I don't have a ride or anything…"

"_Don't worry, sweetheart. I already have a car on its way to your apartment,_" her mom replied. Jazmine blinked, even though her mom couldn't see it. "_It should be there in five minutes. Don't be late!_"

Jazmine sighed as she hung up the phone. She got up and stretched to the sky. "Great. I have to go and perform a show in front of hundreds of rich, old people at a picnic!" she said, feigning her excitement. Huey grunted in response. She slapped his newspaper out of his hands before jumping into his lap. "You should come with me, to keep me sane," she asked softly, rubbing his shoulders. She pouted her lips. "Please?"

"As fun as that sounds," he started, resting his forehead on hers. "I have to go to the office and work on a case."

She scowled. "You suck."

"You swallow."

She smirked and playfully slapped him on the cheek. Her phone rang for a second time, probably her mother calling to tell her the car was outside waiting for her. She groaned before climbing off. She blew a kiss in his direction and walked out of the apartment.

"Great," Jazmine muttered to herself as she saw the driver of her town car standing on the sidewalk, holding up a sign with her last name on it, waiting for her to show up. "Just… great." Did her parents always have to overdo _everything_? She awkwardly walked up to the car.

"Miss Dubois," the driver said when he swung the back door open.

She signed. She stared out the window of the town car. Three hours and twenty-two minutes. That was a current record of how long Jazmine could stand being around her family before she was in a pissed off attitude.

She was pretty sure she was going to break it today.

* * *

"This is fucking stupid."

The new record: two hours and seventeen minutes.

She should've insisted that Huey come with her. She could feel her blood pressure go up every time she heard someone say anything about how great her dad is to her. She should've bribed him, or gave him an ultimatum or something like that. It was like Tom and everything around her changed her into a more irritable Jazmine. She already cursed more today than she had in the whole month.

"I hate this fucking outfit," she said to no one.

Jazmine sat in the chair in front of the vanity mirror, smoothing her dress down in the front. She rolled her eyes once more at herself. Her dress was made in 1867, her strawberry blonde hair was up in high bun, and she was wearing goddamn Mary Janes. _Mary fucking Janes_. She wasn't twelve in the nineteenth century, so why did her mom dress her up in this shit?

"Don't you just look so adorable?" Sarah cooed as she tapped her way into the room. Jazmine put on a small smile. "How do you like your new room? I remodeled it to make it better than your old room."

Jazmine had to admit; the room did look good, way nicer than her tiny one bedroom apartment in Baltimore, and bigger than her room back on Timid Deer Lane. But it wasn't better, per se. She didn't grow up in this room. She never spilled pink nail polish on the carpet and she didn't try to learn Calculus at the desk. The alarms never rung twenty minutes late on school days, the closet hasn't turned into a war zone looking for the perfect shorts. This wasn't _her_ room; it was just four walls with a large space that was deemed hers. The memories weren't there.

"Mrs. Dubois, Mr. Dubois is ready to make his speech and introduce his family."

She hadn't heard her voice in a year. That high-pitched, fake, white girl tone that had a hint of valley girl in it. Jazmine could pick it out in a lineup. Of course she would be here. She had to be as close to Tom as possible without actually being on top of him.

"Oh my God! Jazmine! I haven't seen you in forever!"

_There was a reason for that. I fucking hate you._

She could've easily just punched her in the throat right then and there, ending any assumptions that they would still be friendly with each other. Instead, she simply got up and walked behind her mom. She stopped in front of the happy girl.

"Danielle! Hi!" she faked, even giving the girl a giant hug. She smiled and laughed. "It has been a while, huh? How are you doing? Still fucking my dad, I assume?"

Danielle's smile faltered and fell on impact. She cleared her throat of the lump as best as she could. "Jazmine, look—"

Jazmine put her hand up. "Save it. Literally, you could tell me the meaning of life, and I'd still hate your fucking little homewrecking ass." She turned back to look forward, and hurried up to be behind Sarah. Downstairs, Tom was talking to people in the kitchen. She considered briefly turning around and running out of the house. Maybe she can get Huey to pick her up at the hill.

Tom spotted Sarah and Jazmine. "Sarah, Jesus. How long does it take to put on jewelry? Do you not realize how important this is for me?" he questioned her. Jazmine rolled her eyes. All he talked about was himself. "Jazmine," he said simply.

"Tom."

He gritted his teeth together. "Would it kill you to call me dad, just for today?"

She scoffed. "I don't know; would it kill you to tell the truth for once?"

Tom laughed and shook his head. "You got a lot of nerve, young lady."

"Oh really? I have nerve? Well, why don't we call Danielle who she really is? Because 'Campaign Manager' is such bullshit."

"Jazmine!" her mother scolded. "Not today," she reminded her. She looked at Tom. "_Everyone_ needs to be presentable and on their best behaviors." She looked back at Jazmine. "Even if that means faking it. Now go out there, and _act_ like we're a happy family, or so help us God…"

Sarah's tone meant everything. Jazmine stood up straight and stood next to her mom, while Sarah followed Tom, who already had a huge smile on his face. Jazmine followed suit, putting on a small, but effective smile. Lights flashed from every direction, hoping to get a good picture of the District Attorney and his family.

"Welcome, family and friends, boys and girls, to my family's picnic," he announced, earning a hearty applause. "As always to my right, my wonderful and outstanding wife, Sarah."

_Bullshit! Pure bullshit!_

"And standing next to her, my beautiful daughter, who took time out of her busy, busy schedule as a pre-med student and Johns Hopkins Hospital to come and support her family, my sweetheart, Jazmine."

She smiled and waved at the crowd, which was bigger than she expected. People that would be watching every bite, every laugh, every step. One small fuck-up and she could potentially ruin her dad's reelection campaign.

Good thing Jazmine didn't care.

She was just there to take pictures, lie to a few people on how great of a father Tom was, and hopefully she'd be out in a couple hours. Unfortunately, she remembered that her dad loved to talk for hours and host parties for even longer.

A cater waiter came around with a tray full of flutes of champagne. Jazmine grabbed one before he walked towards another person. She wanted to just down the drink right there, but that was considered "unladylike" and she didn't need her mom yelling at her again.

"Yo, this party you have is lame as fuck," she heard a voice said, coming closer to her. Jazmine smiled at her. At least she knew _somebody_ here. Cindy looked her up and down. "Okay, why the fuck are you wearing somebody's grandmama's dress?"

Jazmine sighed and shook her head. "Please… don't remind me," she replied, trying to forget about the atrocity she had on. She looked over at Cindy. "Why are you even here? I thought your dad and mom always voted Republican."

Cindy grabbed a champagne from the cater waiter. "Well, my mom never misses a big party, whether she supports the cause or not, and my dad loves to get to bent on free liquor. How long you gonna be here for?"

"Hopefully not long."

Cindy took a sip of her champagne. She shrugged. "At least y'all got the good shit. The food though…" she started, shaking her head to symbolize how much it sucked. "I ain't eating no braised quail or whatever the fuck it is. That shit looks _nasty_."

Jazmine smiled. "Five Guys after we leave?"

"You speaking my language, Dubois," Cindy laughed. She looked out into the middle of the lawn and saw Sarah walking this way. She took another sip of her champagne and looked towards Jazmine. "Looks like your mom is coming this way…"

"Fucking great," Jazmine muttered under her breath. She downed the rest of her drink before her mom came her way.

"Cynthia!" Sarah exclaimed in a high-pitched voice when she finally reached the girls. "Haven't seen you in a while. How are you?"

"Just peachy, Mrs. Dubois," Cindy said.

She turned toward Jazmine. "Jazmine, there's this _wonderful_ girl I would _love_ for you to meet. She's just like you: she is in National Honor Society, she has great grades, and she's thinking about going into the medical field. I think you should go talk to her about your experience."

Jazmine scoffed. "You want to talk to some random girl about med school!" she said in a hushed tone. Sarah gave her a stern, motherly look. "But… but… I don't wanna," she whined. Sarah kept her same look. "Fine!" Jazmine groaned. Sarah smiled and walked away. "Come on," Jazmine said, pulling Cindy towards the table she had to go to.

"What?" she asked confused. "Your mom told _you_, not me."

Jazmine ignored her and continued walking until she reached the girl sitting at a table by herself. "Hi. I'm Jazmine, the girl you're supposed to talk to."

The girl smiled. "Hi! I'm Carrie." The girl offered her hand.

Cindy laughed. "You mean like 'Carrie, the girl who killed niggas with her mind' Carrie?"

"Who?"

Jazmine smirked, but rolled her eyes anyway. "Cindy. She's too young for that reference," Jazmine explained.

"Wait…" Carrie started, still confused on what the older girls were talking about. "Who is Carrie?"

"Don't worry about it," Cindy finally said. She pulled out a chair and sat in front Carrie. "We'll talk to you about college. You should probably take notes 'cause… this is some great ass advice."

Jazmine sat down next to Cindy. This ought to be interesting to hear, considering the fact that Cindy rarely went to class. But, since Jazmine didn't really want to do it, and Cindy offered, she went ahead and let Cindy tell Carrie what she knew about college.

"First of all, ain't nobody popular in college. Yeah, you may hear a few stories about some dudes, but it ain't like high school where everybody know that one dude," Cindy clarified. "High school is a popularity contest, college ain't."

"Ooh! I got one!" Jazmine chimed in. "Don't accept a drink from a guy that you don't know." Was it the advice her mother wanted her to give to Carrie? Probably not, but it was still vital for her to know.

Cindy snapped her fingers. "Right! Don't you take no damn drink from no nigga that you don't know personally," she said. "They can put some shit that shouldn't be in there, and you won't know it, and niggas can take advantage of you. Uh-uh. Don't do that shit."

Carrie blinked her eyes. "What about studying and school work?"

"Who the fuck does work in college?"

Jazmine rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to her," Jazmine finally stepped in. "You just have to make sure that you have linked good balance of studying and working and having fun with other people," she explained. "Otherwise, when you actually grow up you're gonna have really bad people skills, and no one would like you because you're weird."

"You mean like your boyfriend?" Cindy giggled.

"No, not like Huey!" Jazmine defended. "He's different…" She turned to Carrie. "He's not weird or anything, he just misunderstood. Like Carrie was." She stopped herself. "Also, watch _Carrie_ before you go to college. How the hell do you not know about that movie?"

"I don't—"

Jazmine waved her hand. "It doesn't really matter. Just… Don't be _that girl_ in college, alright?" She told her before getting up with Cindy. "Good luck!"

Cindy walked next to Jazmine. "Speaking of really bad people skills… how is Huey?"

"Great transition, Cin," Jazmine said sarcastically. "That was really A plus work." Cindy gave her a look. "And… you can tell that I am stalling the question as well. Good job again, Cindy."

"Jaz, if you don't answer that question the next five seconds…"

"He's okay because he has commitment issues too!" Jazmine blurted out. She took a deep breath. "After I told him about my dad, he told me about his dad and how he never met him and how he couldn't say 'I love you' either. And I don't know why, but all of a sudden it made it not okay anymore! Like we're both in this relationship that probably won't go anywhere!"

"How long have you been keeping that in?"

"I don't know," she pouted. "A while. Is that a bad thing? That I eventually want him to commit and I can't? That's a bad thing! I am a bad person!"

"Maybe you're thinking too much into this…"

Jazmine shook her head. "Maybe I am… I can just cross that bridge when we come to it. I mean, I'm not saying it anytime soon, and I'm pretty sure he's not either. Maybe I just needed to let that out."

"Look," Cindy said. She sat down on a random table in the middle of the backyard. "Riley had the same problem. At first, he was really uncomfortable was saying it because of the same reason as Huey, but I just gave him some time… and eventually, it came out naturally. No pressure, no nothing. Just let him do it on his own opportunity."

"Wow. That was good advice."

Cindy shrugged. "And if he doesn't want to say it, then you can just beat it out of him." Jazmine giggled. Cindy's smile on and looked towards the patio. "Speaking of noncommittal boyfriends…"

Jazmine turned in the same direction as Cindy and saw Huey walking into the backyard. She also saw him get stopped by three of Tom's bodyguards. Jazmine jumped up. "Shit, shit, shit," she muttered, walking towards the scene.

"Hey man, I can't let you in if you ain't on the list," one of the bodyguards said.

Jazmine stood next to Huey. "Hey wait!" she said really quickly. She wrapped her arm around his waist. "He's with me! Just put him on the list and let him go," she said, waving her hand.

"Miss Dubois, I can't add anyone to the list. That's what your dad said."

"Well, forget what my dad said, and put him on the list," Jazmine retorted. "My dad just probably forgot to put him on the list. It's a little mistake, and it could be fixed really quick without any problems."

"I'm sorry, but he told me specifically—"

Huey sighed. "Jazmine, just forget it."

"I'm not gonna forget it! Fuck what my dad said!" she snapped.

Sarah walked up to Jazmine. "Sweetie, what seems to be the problem?" She asked. She looked over at Huey, who had her daughter's arm wrapped around his waist. "Huey," she said in a surprised tone. "I haven't seen you in a while… and I am surprised to see you here."

Huey scratched the back of his head. "Uhh… yeah. Jazmine invited me, and it looks like it's a private party, so I'm going to head home," he answered.

Jazmine pulled him tighter to her. "No, you're not. He can stay here because he's my _boyfriend_ and he's welcome here, right?" Jazmine said. She smirked when she saw Sarah, for once, was out of something to say.

"Jazmine… this is a private party," she started. "You should have told us earlier, so we could have put him on the list. But I'm afraid he's going to have to leave."

"Well, if he leaves, then I leave."

Sarah gritted her teeth together. "Jazmine, can I talk to you inside?" She looked up at Huey. "Privately?"

Jazmine gasped overdramatically. "Anything you want to say to me, you can say it in front of my boyfriend, Huey. We don't keep secrets from each other."

Sarah smiled. "I'm gonna go get your father," she announced, walking away. "In the meantime, why don't you and Huey go to your room? Me in your father will meet you there."

Jazmine glared at her mom before she grabbed Huey and walked inside the house, going up the stairs. "Are you using me as a way to get back your parents?" Huey asked. Huey raised an eyebrow. "Is that what you invited me? Did you know this is going to happen?"

She shook her head. "Huey, I would never do that to you. Although… since the opportunity has come up, I might as well use it to my advantage. I'm not using you, I'm just trying to make a bad situation better again."

Huey smirked. "Yeah, you're definitely using me," he replied, following Jazmine. "What are you wearing?"

Jazmine sighed. "Don't remind me," she repeated. She led him into her room and pointed towards the bed. He sat down immediately, while Jazmine went into her massive closet. "I'm changing out of this right now." She threw off the ugly dress as fast as she could and put on what she had before she came over. She removed the hair tie and shook out her curls. She smiled and stepped out of the closet.

"Better?" Huey asked.

She sighed and sat down next to Huey on her bed, talking to her legs under her. She leaned on his arm. "Much better," she replied. She looked at him and kissed him on the cheek and rested her forehead on his shoulder. "I'm sorry that you have to go through this."

"It's okay."

She heard footsteps coming in the hall. "Well, here comes Tom."

Both of Jazmine's parents walked into the room, followed by two assistants, one of them, Danielle. Jazmine rolled her eyes. Why the hell did her dad putting her in here? Sarah closed the door behind everyone.

Tom pointed to Huey. "You. Out. And you," he finished, pointing at Jazmine. "You have a lot to explain."

"I don't have to explain anything to you." As Huey stood up, Jazmine pulled on his arm, setting them back down. "No, Huey can stay right here. He's not going anywhere," she reiterated.

Tom glared at her. "Are you doing this to spite me?"

"Daddy, I would never do anything to spite you," Jazmine said innocently.

Tom huffed. "He is a domestic terrorist and I don't want you dating him!" He yelled. He clenched his teeth together. "Find some other boy to date."

"I don't want to date some other boy," Jazmine slowed down. "I want to date Huey Freeman. And second of all, you're not gonna talk about him like he's not even in the fucking room."

"There is no goddamn way in hell I'm going to let you cost me the election!"

This was a repeat of last year. At the last donors' picnic, instead of wearing what the designer wanted Jazmine to wear, she wore one of her own dresses, deemed slightly skimpy by Tom. Eventually, it led to the huge screaming match that everyone wanted to avoid and Jazmine not talking to her parents for almost five months. Now, it wasn't about the dress, where Huey, or anything. It was all about Tom, trying to control his family. It pissed Jazmine off to no extent, and if she had to yell at him every year for the rest of her life, so be it.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jazmine yelled. "Stop trying to fucking regulate me! I'm fucking twenty-one years old. You think I'm the problem? You think I'm the one who needs to be told what to do? Actually, _father_, you're the fucking problem. You're the one who needs to be restrained, since you like fucking around all the time with other women." She stood up and laughed. "Actually, it's one woman, and she's barely that!" Her eyes darted to Danielle.

"Jazmine—"

She pointed at Danielle. "No, you can shut the fuck up! You're part of the problem!"

"Wait…" Huey started. "Didn't we go to school with her?"

"Yeah. She graduated a year before us," she explained to him. "So to recap, Tom's fucking Danielle, my mom's covering it up, and you're probably the only person in this room to not have a fucked up family." She looked at Huey. "Congratulations."

Tom tapped his foot on the floor. "Are you done?" he finally asked.

Jazmine smiled. "Yes, Tom," she started. She grabbed Huey's arm in he stood up. "In fact, I'm fucking done with all of you. I'm fucking done with you, I'm fucking done with mom, and I'm _definitely_ fucking done with you, Danielle. See you next year!" She said as she walked out of the room with Huey.

She sighed and smiled as she got down on the first floor. "I feel better."

"I bet you do," Huey said.

Jazmine's phone vibrated in her pocket. She quickly read the message. "Huh. Cindy already left the picnic. Can we go and get some food?" She asked Huey as they walked to Huey's car. "I didn't want this crap they had here."

"You didn't have to defend me… you know that right?"

Jazmine rolled her eyes. "I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to," she reminded him. "Just pay me back by feeding me. Seriously, I'm extremely hungry." Huey smirked and nodded his head. Jazmine followed behind him, and suddenly jumped on his back. "Yah, pony!" She giggled as Huey took her the rest of the way to the car. And as she snuggled into his neck, breathing in his cologne, she realized that she didn't want whatever _this_ is, to change.


End file.
